Muggle-In-Law
by DaisySwaffer
Summary: Brian has proposed to Cassandra and they're getting married but Cassandra needs to confess she's a witch to Brian, a muggle, and keep both their mothers happy planning a magical wedding that'll keep to the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy! With Cassandra's younger sister Hannah set to be bridesmaid, will the Inter-School Duelling Competition spoil the big day as well?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Brian nervously ran his fingers over the ring box in his pocket for at least the fifteenth time during the meal and he realised Cassie was looking at him worriedly.

'Are you sure you're OK Brian?' asked Cassie 'you look like you might be coming down with something. I'm sure if we just ask for the bill now th-'

'No no' Brian interrupted 'I'm fine, I'm good, I'm really good. The meal is lovely and you look beautiful tonight Cassie, really beautiful'. He looked at Cassie like he did when they'd first met and he saw all her kindness and warmth radiating from that smile. Then the butterflies did another somersault in his stomach. He never thought he could feel so nervous with Cassie, she'd felt like his soulmate from the moment they'd met and although her parents made him a nervous wreck he was always at his most relaxed when he was with Cassie.

But he'd made his decision, tonight was the night. He'd made the meal out seem less suspicious by timing it for their 3 year anniversary of their first date. They usually went out for a nice meal to mark the occasion every year so Cassie shouldn't think anything extra is going on by him taking her out for a nice meal tonight of all nights. He ran his fingers over the ring box again, paranoid it wouldn't be there each time he did, checking he wasn't imagining it all every time.

They'd been together for 3 years now and although they'd talked a little about moving the relationship to the next stage, they hadn't talked about it in depth and Cassie didn't even want to live together until they were engaged. There was only so long Brian could carry on with overnight visits and he knew he never wanted to be without her so it was time he got down on one knee and popped the question. He just had no idea what the answer was going to be.

Cassie had never seen Brian acting so awkwardly with her. He didn't seem to be listening to anything she said as they talked. She'd managed to get a few sentences from him over the starter but all through the main course his mind is clearly elsewhere and she could swear she even saw some sweat on his forehead. She asked him if he's ill though and he started looking at her all dreamily. Now Brian is a great guy, salt-of-the-earth type, really treats her well, but he doesn't usually get all soppy. It might just be because it's their anniversary but something tonight seemed to be wrong. Cassie started to wonder if he was thinking about leaving her but decided that was preposterous, there's no way Brian, who hates public speaking or making a scene at all, would take her out to a restaurant to talk about splitting up. Maybe he is ill, or maybe he's thinking about work.

They finished their main courses, the waiter came and cleared the plates and brought them the dessert menu. Brian fondled the ring box yet again and looked around the restaurant to see if he could accost a waiter out of Cassie's line of sight.

'I'm not sure I fancy a dessert to be honest' Cassie said 'That lamb was pretty filling, I'm not sure I can manage it' Brian panicked, the plan was ruined if she didn't have dessert. He should have done it over the starter, then he wouldn't have spent the whole meal worrying. But then what if he had asked her during the starter and she'd said no? They would have had to eat the whole meal with that hanging over them. No, no, during the dessert was the best time, and it's traditional too, though Brian wasn't sure where the line between traditional and cheesy was. He was just trying his best to be romantic but he hadn't managed to think of anything more creative than the tried and tested way.

'It doesn't matter if you don't eat it all, you should get something. I'm going to have a dessert so you should get one too' said Brian, trying to steer Cassie not to ruin his plan.

'Maybe I should just share yours then?' asked Cassie.

'No!' snapped Brian, sharply enough to make Cassie recoil a little 'I mean, I'm really looking forward to dessert so I'd love to have a whole portion. You just order what you're wanting and eat as much as you feel like' he said, much calmer.

'Oh alright then, the chocolate fudge cake does sound good' said Cassie with a grin, the dimples in her cheeks making Brian's stomach turn again as he felt like he was falling in love with her all over again. Brian glanced down at the menu to arbitrarily choose something for himself though he doubted he'd be eating any of it, no matter what her answer was.

'Crème Brûlée for me' said Brian, closing his menu and anxiously looking round for the waiter. He just wanted to ask her and know what the answer was now, he couldn't stand the tension and the not knowing.

Cassie saw Brian looking around almost desperately for the waiter and wondered why he wanted to stay for dessert if he's seemingly in such a hurry.

Brian caught their waiter's eye and young man came over to them.

'Would you like to order dessert?' he asked them. Brian gestured to Cassie for her to order first like he usually did, a rather sweet but small gesture of chivalry.

'I'll have the chocolate fudge cake please, but without the ice cream' said Cassie.

'We can offer you whipped cream or crème anglais if you would prefer madam?' asked the waiter. Cassie shot a quizzical look at Brian and he said back quietly 'It's like runny custard, you'll probably like it'. Cassie was still learning a lot about the muggle world, though she integrated a lot better than most other purebloods, but Brian was used to explaining these little things to her, if only he could know that she didn't know them because she's a witch.

'Crème anglais then please' she replied with a smile to the waiter.

'I'll have the, what did I say I'd have again?' said Brian looking down at the menu again. He'd completely forgotten as all he could think about was the proposal and he wasn't even expecting to eat the pudding.

'Crème Brûlée' chimed in Cassie for him. She always seemed to take pleasure in looking after him in this small ways, although she never seemed to get the hang of things like cooking or washing up which he found endearing though he realised he might change his mind about that when they eventually were living together.

'Very good sir' said the waiter as he collected the menus and headed off to the kitchen.

Brian practically leapt out of his chair as soon as the waiter left.

'I need to, I'm just, I'm popping to the toilet Cassie' he said, tripping over his own words.

'Are you sure you're ok?' asked Cassie again. He was so distracted, she was starting to think maybe he had bad news for her. Maybe he was sick and was worried about telling her.

'I'm fine, really' Brian said as he hurried away from the table.

Brian hurried round the corner just in time to see the waiter disappearing into the 'staff only' door into the kitchens. He was so desperate to catch him that he'd burst through the door after him before he realised just what he was doing! The waiter turned round and looked at him stunned.

'Excuse me sir' he said and he recovered from the surprise 'This area isn't for the dining guests'

'I'm sorry' said Brian, 'I just, I need, I…' He was tripping over his words again so he stopped, took a deep breath and drew out the ring box from his pocket.

'Could you please get this ring into my girlfriend's dessert?' he asked, a smile of relief creeping onto his face as he felt the responsibility of the proposal lift from his shoulders.

'Oh sir!' exclaimed the waiter, 'This is very exciting! Yes, we would love to do this for you!' he said almost cheering. It seemed to have made the waiter's night and Brian realised then why, he would of course have to tip generously for extra effort they were putting in so of course the waiter was happy.

'It's the chocolate fudge cake which is hers' he said. Brian had seen enough sitcoms to know he should make sure it goes into the right dessert and he just hoped the classic sitcom gag of another couple in the restaurant being given their desserts wasn't something that happened in real life!

'I know sir, leave it with us' the waiter said 'but you really must leave this area sir'

'Oh yes, of course, sorry, sorry' said Brian, hurrying back out into the restaurant with a smile on his face now and his pocket no longer bulging.

'You're looking better' said Cassie as Brian sat down. 'Were you a bit peaky because you needed to pop to the toilet?'

Brian had almost forgotten the excuse he'd used to follow the waiter but he recovered quickly and without dropping the smile which he found was now stuck on his face. 'Yes, sorry, I should have just gone there sooner shouldn't I. All good now though, all good' he said a little excitedly.

Something still seemed a bit off with Brian but Cassie was just glad he seemed happier now. Maybe there wasn't bad news afterall or maybe he'd done some pee-on-a-stick test or something in the toilets and the result was good, though she couldn't think of anything he could have been doing that for. She didn't really want to ask him about this in a restaurant so she decided she'd leave him to his odd behaviour and ask him when they got home.

The desserts came out quickly, which made Cassie feel guilty as she knew there was another table nearby that had ordered their dessert before they had and they hadn't been served theirs yet. Maybe Brian asked them to be really quick serving when he practically ran after the waiter when they ordered desserts, though that didn't seem like a very Brian thing to do. Cassie decided she'd just appreciate the quick service and hope the other couple had just ordered something that took more cooking perhaps.

'Chocolate fudge cake for Madam' said the waiter as he put Cassie's dessert down in front of her. He was grinning at her which seemed like really odd behaviour and Cassie remembered horror stories about waiters spitting in the food of people they don't like and her full stomach suddenly gave a slight turn as she looked at the rich chocolate cake in front of her.

'Thanks' she replied, slightly hesitantly and with a half smile.

'And crème brûlée for sir' said the waiter, putting Brian's dessert down on the table. He didn't give the same grin to Brian he had to Cassie but instead started grinning at Cassie again. He lingered at the table a little longer, looking like he'd forgotten something, or maybe waiting to see Cassie eat the spit cake so that he could laugh about it!

'Is there anything else I can get you?' he finally asked, still grinning at Cassie. She shook her head and mumbled 'No thank you,' as she turned back to the cake to see if she could see any spit.

Maybe it was in the crème anglais, she wasn't sure what that was meant to look like, maybe he'd spat in that. What on earth had she done to offend him to make him want to spit in her food? Cassie wished she hadn't ordered dessert after all; she wouldn't have done if it wasn't for Brian insisting and not even saying she could share his, but now he seemed to be looking at her as well rather than eating his own dessert. Maybe he wanted the chocolate fudge cake instead of the crème brûlée now he saw them. She couldn't let him have some spit cake, she had to say something.

The tension was killing Brian; somewhere in that chocolate fudge cake was Cassie's engagement ring and she didn't have a clue yet. He wanted her to tear the cake apart and find the ring and just get it over with either way, the waiting and the not knowing was all getting too much for him now. But she wasn't eating it, she was looking at it like it was something that repulsed her even! Oh no, he thought, she knows and she doesn't want to marry me, she doesn't want to get to the ring in the cake because she doesn't want to have to say no.

'Did you see the way that waiter was looking at me?' Cassie asked Brian in an almost whisper.

'What?' said Brian, confused by this topic change.

'Did you see the way he looked at me?' Cassie asked again, sideways glancing to the other side of the restaurant where the waiter was now, who glanced over and caught Brian's eye and grinned.

'The way he looked at you?' asked Brian again, still a bit confused. Maybe she doesn't know after all he thought.

'Yeah, he kind of… grinned' said Cassie, realising how silly it sounded when she said it out loud. She leant forward to say in a dramatic whisper to Brian 'I think he spat in my cake!'

Brian burst out laughing, the tension he was feeling being broken delightfully by this idea. People at nearby tables looked round at the pair and Brian realised that he was the only one laughing and Cassie didn't look too happy with his reaction.

'Oh no, he really hasn't, he's just being friendly, I promise you' said Brian, trying to stop laughing but still chuckling a little. Cassie frowned.

'How can you be so sure?' she asked. 'He was grinning at me and seemed to be waiting for me to start eating when he'd served us and I swear he keeps looking back over at me.'

This waiter had all the subtlety of a brick it seemed, and he was in danger of ruining everything. Brian stopped laughing, frowned at the waiter but he was serving someone else and couldn't see.

'This is too nice a place for that kind of thing' said Brian, trying to reason with Cassie. 'And why would he want to do that anyway? You've not done anything to offend him. I think you're just being a little paranoid'

Cassie thought about it and decided she probably was being quite silly, it was Brian's odd behaviour which had thrown her off and now she's coming up with wild theories. She still didn't fancy eating the cake though, she was imagining the crème anglais was actually made up of half spittle and it was turning her stomach to think about it. 'Maybe we could swap desserts then?' she asked hopefully, since Brian hadn't touched his crème brûlée yet and he seemed keen on the chocolate fudge cake.

'No!' Brian snapped, taking Cassie aback. 'I mean, no thank you' he followed up quickly. 'I really fancy crème brûlée, I've been craving it all day, sorry' he said as then proceeded to start shovelling the dessert into his mouth to make the point. A rather strange point, thought Cassie, since five minutes ago he couldn't remember what he wanted to order for dessert.

She looked down at her chocolate cake again and decided she just couldn't eat it. She was full already and her accusatory thoughts had completely put her off, whether she was right or not. She pushed the plate away from her towards the middle of the table.

'I'm sorry' said Cassie. 'I just can't eat it, not now I've been imagining what he's done to it, even if I'm wrong. I shouldn't have ordered it.'

Brian could not believe what he was hearing. How had it gone so wrong? He swallowed the big mouthful of crème brûlée and looked at the cake, up at Cassie and back to the cake, wondering how he could fix this.

'If I have some then you'll know it's ok' he offered hopefully.

'If you want some then you're more than welcome to it' replied Cassie 'but I just won't have any myself'

'But…' said Brian, trying in vain to think of a reason which didn't involve giving the game away.

He grabbed his dessert fork and sliced off the end of the point of the piece of cake and ate it. 'Oh my god' he said 'that's delicious!' He held out his fork to Cassie 'Try some, really!'

'No no' said Cassie 'I'm glad it's so nice, you can enjoy it at least then.'

Brian seemed to only have two options left to him, one was to tell her what was going on, which wasn't an option as far as he was concerned, and two was to try and reveal the ring and let her see it.

He took the plate of cake, pushed the remains of his crème brûlée to one side and started digging around in the cake.

He'd broken it mostly apart when a metallic glint caught his eye in the fudge filling near the back of the cake. Of course, thought Brian, why didn't he think of that, they'd have slid the ring in where it was easiest and that was at the widest end of the cake.

He scraped the cake away a bit more from the ring so that it was just protruding from the cake and excitedly looked back up at Cassie who was staring at him like he'd gone a bit mad.

'I thought you said it was delicious and you've destroyed it rather than eat it' she said, more questioningly than accusingly. 'Are you sure you're alright?'

'Never better' said Brian, triumphantly returning the cake to her side of the table and turning the plate around so that she would be able to see the ring.

Cassie however, was just looking at him with that concerned expression he often saw her with at the hospital.

'You're acting really strangely Bri' she said. 'Is it freaking you out that we've been together for three years now or something?'

'Freaking me out?' he asked with a smile. 'I think three years isn't nearly long enough. Ten years still sounds short to me, twenty, fifty? I'd like a lifetime.' He smiled his biggest and happiest smile at the thought of a lifetime with this caring, sweet, funny and (though he felt superficial for thinking it) sexy woman.

Cassie blushed but grinned hugely back at Brian. 'I love you Bri' she said to him and leant over to the table to kiss him.

As soon as they separated from their quick kiss, which Cassie had hoped no-one would notice, three waiters rushed over to the table cheering, one of them was carrying a bottle of champagne and another was carrying an ice bucket.

'Congratulations!' they were saying to her. This must have been what Brian was doing when he supposedly went to the toilet thought Cassie, organising a bottle of champagne to celebrate their anniversary, and he probably asked them to bring it over once they'd finished dessert as that would explain the waiter grinning at her and Brian's odd dessert eating.

'She said yes!' one of the waiters yelled out in amongst the congratulations and suddenly the whole restaurant burst into polite applause and a couple more cheers.

Brian's belly felt like it had sunk into the floor as he realised how the waiters had misinterpreted their kiss and now one of them was announcing her answer when he hadn't been able to ask her yet!

'What?' asked Cassie, suddenly very confused. 'It's our anniversary, not out engagement' she tried to explain to the waiter who had made the proclamation, but he didn't seem to be paying her any attention. She looked over at Brian to see that he didn't look so much confused as disappointed. What was going on?

'Look in the cake' said Brian sheepishly and Cassie looked down at the cake which was turning her stomach just a few minutes before and saw a glinting pair of owl eyes staring at her from inside the cake. Her jaw dropped open and she looked up at Brian who smiled and nodded encouragingly. The waiters were still making a big racket and fuss around them but they'd all disappeared as far as Cassie and Brian were both concerned.

Cassie pulled the ring out of the cake; it was a beautiful silver ring which depicted an owl face with yellow jewels in the eyes. It was exactly the ring that Cassie would have chosen for herself if she'd ever thought about what ring she'd want for an engagement ring, it was so beautiful and so perfect.

Brian was kneeling on one knee next to her now, and the waiters seemed to have quietened down, Cassie now knew that they were realising that they had jumped the gun. Brian took her hand, the one which wasn't holding the ring and fixed her with his beautiful green eyes.

'Cassandra Hepzibah Crescent, will you spend your lifetime with me? Will you marry me?'

All her apprehensions of being in a relationship with a muggle had completely left her at that point, all thoughts on how her parents would react and what having a family with a muggle would mean had evaporated completely from her being, and she just saw this man she loved so much, asking her to be his wife.

She grinned so much that her cheeks squeezed the tears that were forming out of her eyes and she said, loudly so that all the people who had stopped eating their food to watch could hear. 'With all my heart, yes, of course I will!'

The restaurant burst into much louder applause now with noticeably more cheers and the waiters resumed their cheering and popped open the bottle of champagne. Brian wished they hadn't assumed they'd have champagne as that was a lot for the two of them to try and drink but then he thought you have to celebrate things like this with champagne don't you, it's just how things are done.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

'Shouldn't you be a bit more pleased for me that this Mum?' asked Cassie as she sat in her mother's kitchen with her new owl engagement ring proudly on her left hand ring finger.

'It's not that I'm not happy for you' said Romilda as behind her the kettle on the stove started whistling as it boiled and it lifted itself up and poured itself into the waiting teapot. 'It's just that it's complicated, marrying a muggle.' Cassie sighed, she knew her parents wouldn't be happy she was marrying a muggle. It wasn't that they had anything against muggles, they generally regarded them as quite charming, but it was the inconvenience of dealing with muggles that they took umbrage with, having to act like muggles yourself or spend a lot of your time doing obliviate or confundus charms to erase the evidence.

'I know Mum, complicated, but if you just took more time to get to know Brian then you'd see why he's worth it, and you know the muggles really have got a lot more to offer us than people realise'.

Cassie knew her point was falling on deaf ears; she'd spent a lot of time defending her career decision to not only her parents but her peers at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries as well. Cassie worked in research of Muggle Medicine Methods which most of the magical community regarded as a very backwards and butcherous thing but there were some injuries which just couldn't be cured by any known magic and in these cases then the research that muggles have had to put into their medical sciences was fascinating and invaluable but most witches and wizards that Cassie knew insisted to her that she was wasting her talents as a healer.

'Yes Cassandra love, but we'll see if that's still an issue once he knows your true nature shall we. I've heard of many a witch or wizard who came back to the magical world to look for a spouse once they'd witnessed how the muggles take the news. Take your cousin Artemus for instance, he waited till his wedding night to tell his bride and they had to obliviate all her memories since before they met after she tried to go to the papers.' Cassie rolled her eyes at her Mum, she'd heard this story countless times since she'd first broken the news to her parents that she was seeing a muggle. 'You're not going to wait until your wedding night I hope, you need to tell him as soon as you've got your permission, no point waiting, I don't want to plan a wedding then cancel it all you know.'

'Yes Mum, I'll get the application in as soon as I can, I just…' Cassie sighed.

'Just what love?' inquired Romilda

'I just thought you could celebrate with me, just a little, before we had to start going down that road. I'm happy Mum, really happy, can you please just be happy with me?'

'Of course I'm happy for you Cassandra love, and I'll be there for you when you've told him and you need a shoulder to cry on' Romilda gave Cassie a big hug at this point as though she was being the best mother in the world when Cassie wished she hadn't even bothered telling her.

Cassie broke free from the prolonged hug and went over to the teapot to pour out the cups of tea. Just as she was about to grab the handle though, the teapot lifted up of its own accord and poured out two cups of tea. Cassie turned round to see her mum smiling with her wand in her hand.

'No point doing it the muggle way love, no danger of slips or spills our way' she said smugly. Cassie quite liked doing things the muggle way, she'd had to do things without magic until she was seventeen after all though her parents were always there to do anything which would be difficult without magic. That didn't mean people had to use magic for everything of course but Cassie's mum liked to make a point of it since she started working at the muggle hospital. That's not to say that Cassie didn't use a fair amount of magic in her own home, it makes good sense to, but she appreciated the muggle ways of doing things too and she had to do things without magic when she was at work to blend in with everyone else of course.

'Mum, you're going to have a muggle for a son-in-law so you really shouldn't be so critical of the muggle ways. You've put Brian down every time you've met him and he's got no idea what he's ever done to offend you!' snapped Cassie, starting to lose her temper. 'Look just forget the tea, I'm going to go back home and send off my application to the Ministry of Magic so that Brian can start to feel like a part of this family!'

And with that Cassie walked out of the kitchen, through to the fireplace in the living room. She grabbed a handful of floo powder from the pot on the mantle piece, threw it into the fire. The fire turned emerald green and the flames licked up the chimney out of sight. Cassie stepped into the flames, turned around to see her Mum come into the room looking anguished and said firmly 10 Moon Street and disappeared, the tall, green flames returning to their usual height and orange colour as Romilda left the room again muttering about manners and muggles.

Cassie sat at the lovely old writing bureau she kept in her spare room, unlocked it and pulled open the front. Inside the bureau was a selection of books about healing like Asiatic Anti-Venoms, Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions and The Healer's Helpmate. Tucked away at the end though was the rarely used Ministry of Magic Manual, the handbook issued to all witches and wizards when they leave the care of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and have to start making their own way. The Ministry of Magic was a huge organisation which dealt with all aspects of law, order and community amongst the magical society but the biggest law of them all which the Ministry is very tough on, is the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy. This statute has been signed by all of the magical governing bodies worldwide and ensures that the existence of witches and wizards is kept an absolute secret from the muggle population. This has proved particularly tricky for the Ministry of Magic to uphold during times of war when dark wizards with anti-muggle beliefs show no respect for the law and reveal their nature during the course of their attacks. There are much less dark ways in which the law is broken too though, mischievously enchanted muggle artefacts or simply accidents or low flying on broomsticks. It's a huge job for the Ministry to manage, and one aspect of that is when a witch or wizard and a muggle decide to get married.

Cassie found the right page in the Ministry of Magic Manual about Magical Muggle unification and read what it said.

**Magical Muggle Unification**

When a witch or a wizard had made an agreement with a muggle that they shall be legally bonded then the witch or wizard may then apply to the Ministry of Magic for permission to reveal their magical nature to that muggle, and that muggle alone.

Such a revelation must be made with two Ministry of Magic officials present and the witch or wizard must give permission for these officials to obliviate the memory of the muggle if they deem him or her to be a risk to the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy of 1692.

Send your owl to the Muggle Relations department at the Ministry of Magic to apply for permission and to consent to the following terms and conditions and also provide a character reference who can testify to your ability to comply with the terms and conditions.

1. The muggle must not disclose the existence of magic or any aspect of the magical community to any other muggle

2. The muggle must not use any magical artefact or object in such a way that it will reveal the existence of magic to another muggle

3. The muggle must agree to allow any child produced by themselves and a witch or wizard to either attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, an alternative magical school in another country or to allow the child to receive a complete magical education at home.

Any failure to comply with these conditions will result in Ministry of Magic representatives obliviating the memory of the muggle (and any other muggles whom the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy has been broken with) and further permission to disclose the magical nature of the bonded party will be denied.

Cassie finished reading the section and blew out a deep breath as she took in what a huge thing she had undertaken. The possibility of never telling Brian that she is a witch just wasn't feasible; if they were married then they would be living together and it was hard enough work hiding her magical nature from Brian when she was visiting his house, even harder when he was paying a rare visit to her house, Cassie couldn't conceive how difficult it would be if they were living together and she was certainly not prepared to try that. She also couldn't ever marry someone without them knowing such a fundamental part of her and her world.

There was no alternative, she had to tell him that she is a witch and she has to do it now so that he still has an opportunity to choose not to marry her. The very thought of Brian deciding he doesn't want to marry her anymore made Cassie feel a deep despair from inside her chest and a little part of her tried to say she could hide her magical nature, she does it often enough for work at the muggle hospital and all the time she spends with Brian, she could just give up magic altogether but that concept was completely unthinkable; without magic how could she visit her parents or even see her witch and wizard friends, besides the difficulty of having to travel using muggle transport then she'd have to ask them to hide their magical natures completely when they visited her too and most of them wouldn't be able to even if they tried, they just wouldn't know how to fit in with the muggles.

Cassie needed to write the application to the ministry now, before she changed her mind.

She took out a piece of parchment, her favourite quill, a sunshine yellow one which was a present from her parents (a reward for getting four O grades and one E grade for her N.E.W.T.s, the best result in Hufflepuff that year and only a girl in Ravenclaw did better in the whole year) and a bottle of ink and she wrote her application to the Ministry.

Dear witch/wizard of the Muggle Relations office,

I have been involved with a muggle man called Brian John Cooper for three years now and we have just announced our intention to be bonded.

I would like to apply for permission to disclose my magical nature to the aforementioned muggle as soon as possible.

I can confirm I have read the terms and conditions listed in the Ministry of Magic Manual and I agree to these terms on my own and on the aforementioned muggle's behalfs.

My address is 10 Moon Street, Oldham and I am on the floo network if this is your preferred method of travel.

My character reference who can testify to my empathy with muggles and my ability to integrate discreetly with them is Dr Artemus Prewett with whom I have been working for six years, four of those on research amongst the muggles.

Please provide some food, water and rest to my owl Tilly as this is a much longer journey than she is used to.

I look forward to your owl in response to my application soon.

Yours faithfully,

Cassandra Hepzibah Crescent

Cassie folded up the parchment, sealed it with some sealing wax and her Cresent family stamp, which was of course a crescent moon, and wrote on the outside of the parchment For The Attention of the Muggle Relations Department, Ministry of Magic, London

Cassie stared at the finished letter and though about how Brian's life was going to change once she had permission to tell him and whether he would ever regret asking her to marry him.

She carefully packed away her bureau and locked it up securely again and reflected that it would be nice at least when she doesn't have to keep anything magical so secretively hidden away like this. She then turned her attention to the wooden stand next to the bureau on which was perched her beautiful tawny owl Tilly who looked to be fast asleep until Cassie saw her open one eye, look at her and close it again.

She opened a box next to the stand and took out some of the treats she kept for Tilly. This made Tilly stop seeming to be so tired as she was suddenly wide awake and excitedly pecking at Cassie's hand.

'Here you go Tilly' Cassie said as she let Tilly greedily eat up the treats from her hand, 'you need a bit of extra fuel, I'm afraid I've got a longer trip than usual for you to make if you will?' Tilly hooted softly and Cassie took that as a sign of consent. 'It's for the Ministry' Cassie told the small tawny owl, 'and it's very important, it's to ask permission to tell Brian about everything!' It felt strange to Cassie to say those words out loud, made it feel more real somehow and Tilly seemed to understand that importance of the letter she was being asked to deliver and she plumped her chest up.

Cassie held out the letter for Tilly to grasp in her claws, opened the window and Tilly flew outside and disappeared into the night. Cassie was left alone feeling like she was a passenger on a runaway train which had just left the station.

It was three days after Cassie had sent Tilly off with the letter to the Ministry and Cassie was working a late shift at the muggle hospital today so she was enjoying a lie in when she heard a familiar tap tap tap at her bedroom window. She dragged herself out of bed, dressed in her pink pajamas which were covered in little pink owls and hearts, pulled back the curtains and opened the window enough for a ball of fluff to quickly fly in before she shut the window again. Tilly flew onto Cassie's bed, dropped the letter she was carrying there and started to hoot quietly. Cassie knew exactly what Tilly wanted so she popped to the room next door, grabbed the owl treats from the box and a dish of water and came back through. Tilly started to hoot a little louder when she saw what Cassie was carrying.

'Here you go Tilly' said Cassie as she set down the dish of water and held out her hand with some treats inside which Tilly immediately set upon. 'You've flown a long way, you must be really tired girl.'. Tilly emited a single, fairly loud hoot in response which Cassie took to mean she was tired but proud of a job well done. Cassie almost daren't look at the letter Tilly had delivered but she glanced across at it and saw the large M in a circle showing prominently on it, just as she knew it would have; it was the response from the Ministry.

She Cassied on fussing over Tilly until the tawny owl decided she'd been fussed over enough and she took Tilly through to her perch in the spare room with some fresh food and water before she returned to her room and looked at the letter sitting there on the bed.

Brian had known something was wrong these past few days; after the euphoria of the night when he proposed had worn off, as well as all the champagne they'd drunk, Cassie knew that she needed to finally tell Brian the biggest secret in the world. This had made Cassie distracted, stressed and distant with Brian then and she felt guilty about that too but at least she would be able to explain it all to him soon, but that of course left the question as to what his reaction would be.

Brian is a nurse, he works in medicine and is an atheist, all that he knows, all that he believes in, is science. He didn't like to read fantasy or science fiction books because he didn't see them as realistic, he is a clever, kind and caring man, but a relatively closed minded one; Cassie could not begin to guess what his reaction was going to be.

She stared at the letter a little longer before she did what she knew she must do and she opened the letter.

Dear Miss Cassandra Crescent,

We received your request for permission to disclose your magical status and the knowledge of the magical community to the muggle Brian Cooper by reason of intent of bonding, or marriage.

Two representatives from the Ministry of Magic Muggle Relations department will be arriving at your address of 10 Moon Street on Tuesday the Second of October at 5 o'clock in the afternoon by floo network.

Do not disclose any information covered in the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy of 1692 until the representatives have arrived and have expressly given their permission to do so.

Failure to attend this appointment or to carry out the task within a reasonable time frame determined by the representatives will result in a significant delay to further permission for the same.

Congratulations on your exciting news.

Yours sincerely,

Adrastea Dippet

Department of Muggle Relations

Ministry of Magic

Tuesday the Second though Cassie, but that's only tomorrow! Cassie quickly grabbed her diary out of her handbag and looked at the page for the week. Her diary for tomorrow read: 06-16 MRI 16-18 StM, B 08-20 meaning that she was working at the muggle hospital from six in the morning until four in the afternoon then at St Mungos from four until six in the evening and Brian had an eight until eight shift. If she explains the circumstances to Dr Prewett then he is sure to allow her the time off but the problem was making sure Brian could make it when he was meant to be working until eight in the evening without telling him what was so important and trying to avoid even more lies before the big truth came out.

Cassie wasn't wearing the beautiful owl design engagement ring Brian had bought her yet. Not only this but she had insisted to Brian that they don't tell anyone about their engagement yet when Brian was bursting to tell everyone he knew. This was not only frustrating for Brian but upsetting as well; Cassie hadn't explained to him why she didn't want them to tell anyone yet (not even his parents!) saying that he would find out soon enough and they could tell everyone then and this secrecy was starting to really worry and annoy Brian. Cassie had, over the course of their three year relationship, kept secrets from him telling him that she'll explain one day and she had never explained any of these things and Brian felt like keeping the engagement as one of these secrets was a step too far. He had reluctantly agreed to this secrecy on the basis that was only temporary and she would explain very soon and Cassie had seemed which emphatic that this would be the case but Brian couldn't help but wonder if that was just a lie as he went about his busy day working at the Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Brian was two thirds of the way through his shift for the day when Jessie arrived at the hospital. Jessie was one of the nurses who worked in the same department as Brian at the hospital but she wasn't rostered to be working for another four hours at eight in the evening.

'Jessie!' exclaimed Brian at seeing her already, 'What're you doing here?'

'Brian, thank goodness I found you!' said Jessie. 'I'm taking over your shift, show me where you're up to will you?'

'What do you mean you're taking over my shift?' asked Brian, confused. 'I never asked you to do that, I don't need you to either, I mean I haven't got plans or anything, I don't think I do anyway...' he said, starting to doubt himself and wondering if he'd even got the date right today.

'Well actually' said Jessie with a sheepish smile, 'You do have plans. Cassie called me and asked me to relieve you early as a bit of a last minute favour, she said it's really important and I didn't have anything on so I said I would.'

'Are you sure?' asked Brian, still not sure what was going on 'she didn't mean a different day or anything?'

'Definitely not' said Jessie 'it was this morning when she called, she was definitely talking about today, no doubt that! Sounds like she's planning a surprise to me.' Jessie grinned at Brian but Brian just felt a bit uneasy, more secrets, he didn't like the sound of this. 'So tell me where you're up to so you can head off and get your surprise' said Jessie.

Brian was just finishing the handover when Cassie arrived, looking very apprehensive and Brian decided this couldn't be the good kind of surprise.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

'Hi Bri' said Cassie with forced cheeriness and since she could see he was handing over with Jessie, so he already knew that he is leaving now, she followed up with 'Surprise!'. She said it almost as a question as she saw the look on Brian's face, he is not happy. And she couldn't blame him, she'd been cagey and secretive, far more than usual and even had to ask him to keep the engagement a secret in case he wanted to call it off after she confesses to him that she's really a witch. What person wouldn't be upset when they propose and then they're asked to keep it all a secret? She had a lot of making up to do with him but that all depended on how it went this evening and that was the huge unknown. Cassie had never been more nervous in her life, not for any exams at school, not for any job interview, not even treating patients both at St Mungo's hospital and even at the muggle hospital treating patients using muggle methods and no magic at all, this was by far the scariest thing she had ever done.

'Yeah, surprise' said Brian, unenthusiastically. 'I hope it's a good one' he said with a look which said he already knew it wasn't.

'Well, we'll just have to see what you think afterwards' said Cassie with a little laugh, trying to make light of it all but Brian wasn't going to be placated that easily. 'Well, we need to get going anyway, we've got an appointment to keep and we need to get there' she said and they walked out to the car in awkward silence.

Once they were in the privacy of the car, Brian finally spoke up.

'Ok, so what's this about?' he asked, quite snappily but his patience was running thin and he was starting to wonder if he had proposed after all or if he was just imagining her saying yes.

'I can't tell you yet' said Carrie and she saw Brian roll his eyes but he didn't say anything 'but I'll be able to tell you everything tonight, and I mean everything.' This made Brian sit up and listen.

'You mean it?' he asked incredulously. 'The end of the secrets? I can tell people we're engaged? You'll explain all of these secrets, everything that's going on?' He was almost eager now, he couldn't believe she was finally going to stop making excuses and tell him what was going on.

'Really, I mean it, everything, I'll explain it all. I just hope you understand when I tell you' said Carrie, her stomach churning with nerves. 'We need to go to my house.'

This was unusual in itself, they spend the majority of their time as a couple at Brian's house despite Cassie's much loved pet owl Tilly being at her house which went to show how much she didn't like Brian being there. She seemed particularly sensitive and secretive about her belongings with lots of locked cupboards and once she really bit his head off when he'd picked up a glass ball which was glowing red, he was looking for the switch or something to see how it worked as it was really nice but as he picked it up it stopped glowing and turned clear, a clever little thing but she'd snatched it out of his hands and locked it away with everything else that was secret in her house. Did she really mean no more secrets? No more locked cupboards and things snatched away from him if he looked at them? He couldn't believe it was really true but he set off to drive them to her house.

Cassie was anxiously watching the clock in the car the whole way to her house; why is muggle transportation so slow? They made it through the door with only five minutes to go until the Ministry officials were due to arrive and she couldn't have Brian in the room when they did, breaking the news to him that there's magic and she's witch by having two people pop out of her fireplace didn't strike her as a good idea on top of the fact it contravened the instructions from the Ministry which stated the officials have to give their permission before she can tell him.

'Ok we're here' said Brian as they walked in the door, 'are you going to tell me what's going on now?'

'Not just yet but very, very, very soon' said Cassie as she looked around desperately checking that she hadn't left anything magical out that Brian could pick up like that remembrall she left out once, which was trying to tell her that she'd forgotten to put it away!

'Ok, I need you to wait in my spare room' said Cassie, checking her watch and panicking at how close to five o'clock it was now.

'Wait in your spare room while you do what?' asked Brian, sounding fed up of being kept in the dark.

'While I wait for some visitors to arrive' said Cassie. She really didn't want to start explaining anything before the Ministry representatives arrived in case they decided she had told him without their permission. 'We need to wait for them and then we can talk about everything.' Cassie tried to sound reassuring but the look on Brian's face seemed more like she was frustrating him further.

'We need other people here for you to tell me what's going on?' asked Brian dubiously.

'I do, but it'll make sense, I promise' Cassie looked at her watch again, only one minute to five now. 'Quickly' she said rushing to the spare room with Brian following slowly behind. 'I'll come and get you very soon and I can explain everything then.'

'Fine' said Brian, marching into the spare room and dropping moodily into the armchair in there, waking up Tilly in the process. Tilly gave a single hoot of indignation and Brian just scowled at her, Tilly now being a reminder of the engagement ring Cassie wasn't wearing yet, and Cassie closed the door on him and hurried downstairs to the living room.

Just as she opened the door into the living room, a witch and a wizard emerged from the fireplace and Cassie was particularly surprised to see that they were wearing muggle business suits. The wizard, who had emerged from the fireplace first, approached Cassie with quite a stern look on his face.

'Cassandra Hepzibah Crescent I assume' he said.

'Erm, yes!' said Cassie, slightly thrown by everything happening so quickly and wizards wearing such good muggle clothes.

'I'm Scabior Mockridge from the Department of Muggle Relations from the Ministry of Magic' the wizard said, his face remaining very stern and business like.

'I'm Adrastea Dippet' said the witch, smoothly sliding in front of the wizard 'Head of Muggle Relations'. She grabbed Cassie in a full hug which pinned Cassie's arms to her side until she let go. 'Congratulations dear' she said as she let go. This felt particularly strange to Cassie as the only person she'd told about the engagement was her mum so other than the people in the restaurant at the time which didn't feel real anymore and the letter from the Ministry which felt very insincere, this was the first time anyone had congratulated her and she found herself grinning hugely. Adrastea Dippet was dressed in a very smart black, pinstripe suit with a pencil skirt and her hair tied up neatly into a tight bun and with a big welcoming smile on her face, in stark contrast to Scabior Mockridge next to her in an all black suit with a white shirt and black tie, Cassie thought he looked like he was dressed more for a funeral.

'Thanks' said Cassie still grinning, remembering the feeling in the restaurant when Brian got down on one knee now, but her smile fell when the reality of why they were here hit her again and she remembered he might be taking it all back in just a few minutes.

'Is the muggle here?' asked Mockridge formally as he pulled a roll of parchment from the pocket inside his jacket; Cassie saw there was a special pocket sewn into the inside of the jacket which held his wand. 'Brian Cooper, is that right?'

'Yes' replied Cassie, 'that's him and he's waiting in the spare room upstairs.' Her eyes involuntarily flicked up to the ceiling as she wondered if Brian could hear anything they were saying, maybe she should have put a charm on the living room so that he couldn't hear what they were saying but she decided it was probably best that she didn't do any more magic until she'd told him everything anyway.

'Very good' replied Mockridge as he extracted another roll of parchment from his pocket. 'We just need you to sign this parchment' he said stiffly as he took out a long and ornate black quill from his pocket as well. Cassie surmised that Mockridge must have an undetectable extension charm on his jacket pocket for the rolls of parchment to survive uncrushed and for such a large quill to fit in. She made this modification to her own muggle handbags so she knew it well.

'It's just saying you know we'll obliviate Brian's memory if he takes the news really badly' explained Adrastea Dippet kindly. 'Oh don't worry' she said when she saw the worried look on Cassie's face 'I think we've only needed to do it once in the last ten years dear, and muggle was a journalist so I don't know what the wizard was thinking but all she wanted to do was write an article on it, can you imagine dear?' This news made Cassie start to relax a little, she was imagining that most of these visits would result in them needing to obliviate the memory but it sounded like it was pretty rare for a case to be that extreme.

Cassie had a look over the parchment after Mockridge set it down on the coffee table and Adrastea was right, it was just what they'd already told her in the letter and what was covered in the Ministry of Magic Manual so she signed her name and Mockridge and Adrastea both signed it too and Cassie had a gut-wrenching feeling giving permission for such a big thing on Brian's behalf without even being able to talk to him about it first. But it was done now and it had to be done, she had to tell him and this was the only way she would be allowed.

'So how does this work then?' asked Cassie, looking at the pair standing in her living room. 'I mean, do you have to be in the room, or do you wait outside the door or something?'

'Well it's up to you really dear' said Adrastea 'if you'd prefer us to be in the room then we're very happy to be but if we're not in the room then we simply cast a listening charm so we'll know how he reacts in any case.'

Cassie thought about it and decided that telling Brian was going to be hard enough without having two strangers in the room at the same time. She didn't like the idea of being listened in on either but she decided that was the better of the alternatives.

'Alright' said Cassie 'I think I'd prefer it if you were waiting in the kitchen then if that's alright with you. There's a table and chairs in there so you can have a sit down anyway.'

'Oh that's lovely dear, thank you' said Adrastea, 'I'll just set up the charm before we leave.' She picked up two of the owl ornaments Cassie had on her mantle piece, put them down on the coffee table and took out her wand from a pocket in her jacket just like the one she'd seen in Mockridge's jacket and cast a non-verbal spell over the owls. She returned one of them back to the mantle piece and picked up the other one to take with them.

'This way then please' said Cassie, and as she said it, the owl in Adrastea's hand animated and repeated her words very slightly after she said them giving an odd echo effect.

'Thank you dear' said Adrastea, immediately echoed by the owl, as her and Mockridge followed Cassie out of the room.

Cassie led them both through to the kitchen sparing a glance up the stairs to check Brian wasn't on the landing listening to everything. 'Help yourself to anything you like' said Cassie, noticing that the owl wasn't repeating her words now that they weren't in the same room as the other owl statue anymore.

'That won't be necessary' said Mockridge very formally as he seating himself at the table and sat bolt upright.

'Thank you dear' said Adrastea pulling out a chair for herself and settling herself down comfortably.

'Right' said Cassie, contemplating what she was about to it. 'And if I want any help, you know, proving things…'

'Oh yes dear' said Adrastea with a little laugh, 'we always get asked to prove people aren't mad, if you want to call us in then we'll hear through the owl so just say so. Good luck dear!'

'Thanks' said Cassie with a forced smile and she left the kitchen closing the door behind her.

The walk up the stairs seemed to be a mile long but before she knew it she was at the top of the stairs and opening the door to the spare room.

'Right' she said to Brian 'it's time, come downstairs.'

Brian didn't say a word and just followed her down the stairs and into the living room. They both sat down on the sofa and Cassie realised she was actually shaking now.

'I thought you said there were visitors' said Brian looking around the room as though he could have missed them; maybe they were dwarves or children or something, he wasn't sure. He knew he'd heard voices while he was waiting upstairs though so he knew the visitors were here.

'They're waiting in the kitchen' said Cassie, who looked even more nervous than he felt. She put her hands on his and he felt them trembling and the annoyance he was feeling at being put through this rigmarole melted away and he just wanted to hold her and make her feel better.

'I want you to know' she said 'that I love you, and I've had to keep this secret, it hasn't been my choice.' She looked at him earnestly as she said this, knowing how Brian couldn't resist when she did those puppy dog eyes.

'Just tell me what it is' he said, needing to just get it over with so that they could get on with their lives at last.

'Alright' said Cassie. 'You're going to find this hard to believe, and I'm totally prepared for you to ask me to prove it, but this is the thing I've had to keep secret from you for all this time.'

Brian hadn't noticed it happening but he found he was now literally sitting on the edge of the sofa seat and he was in danger of falling off it.

'Go on' he said, very impatient now. There was nothing she could say which would warrant this build up, even if she said she was a James Bond spy or something.

Cassie took a deep breath and said 'I'm a witch.'

Brian looked at Cassie, leaving a silence hanging between them, the word witch feeling like it was echoing through the air around him. He kept looking at Cassie waiting for the explanation or the punchline or something. 'What, in a play or something?' he asked, this being the only thing he could think that she meant.

'No' said Cassie, 'a real live witch. I do magic, I can technically ride a broomstick but I'm really bad at it, I went to a school of magic to learn it and the rest of my family are witches and wizards too.

It felt like a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders, even her stomach stopped doing somersaults. She couldn't help but break into a great big smile at finally telling Brian the truth.

'This is a really strange joke' said Brian, still puzzled but with Cassie now grinning at him he decided it must be a joke. This just annoyed him, was all of this, the delay of announcing the engagement, the odd behaviour for three years, all for this silly joke? What was she really hiding?

'It isn't a joke' said Cassie, trying to straighten her face but finding it difficult to. 'I'm absolutely serious, I'm a witch.'

'Ok ok' said Brian, playing along now since Cassie didn't seem like she was about to drop it, 'if you're a witch shouldn't you have green skin, a pointy hat, lots of warts and a black cat anyway?'

Cassie lifted one eyebrow and just looked at Brian. 'And maybe some cobwebs all over your house? Oh I know, your house should be made of gingerbread!' Brian started laughing now, trying to think of as many more witch tropes he could come up with. 'Have you got a pair of ruby slippers maybe?' He actually found himself slapping his own knee for that one, an action he couldn't remember ever doing before in his life but his mind has sunk to such cheesy depths his body was responding appropriately.

'No, I do have on, no, no I prefer my owl Tilly' answered Cassie as she counted Brian's questions off on her fingers. 'No, and that sounds like a very tasty idea now that you mention it but I think I'd end up eating my own house and that wouldn't be a very good idea.' Cassie looked at Brian expectantly, waiting for the next question.

'Hang on' said Brian, as he went through Cassie's answers, 'was that you do have warts or you do have a pointy hat?'

'Pointy hat' said Cassie simply. 'Do you want me to go and fetch it to prove it? It's only for formal occasions of course, we don't wear them for every day wear, they're a bit impractical for that.'

Brian was starting to wonder what was really going on now, why on earth would she be carrying on with this silly game, what could the point of it possibly be the achieve other than winding him up and it didn't seem like a good idea to wind him up when she'd already put his nose out of joint with delaying the announcement of the engagement. So what was the point? She seems to be determined to carry on with the façade so maybe the only way to find out really is to humour her.

'Yeah, go on then, let's see the' he said, sitting back on the sofa to wait for her to go and get it.

Instead of leaving the room though, Cassie went to the bookcase, slid out a tall book he'd never noticed in amongst the others which the spine claimed to be A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot. She opened the book and took out an ornately carved stick.

'Accio hat!' said Cassie firmly as she waved the stick about and within a few seconds a black pointed hat came flying into the room, curved around the sofa and went straight into her hand. 'My hat' she said, as she placed it on her head in a ceremonial way, a cheeky grin spreading across her face.

Brian realised after about 20 seconds of staring at Cassie that his mouth was wide open and promptly closed it. He then realised what all this was really about 'That was great!' he said. 'so is that going to be the start of your act?'

'What?' asked Cassie, a bit deflated by this question. 'What act?'

'The hospital Christmas Variety Show' he said 'you're going to do a magic act!' All this nonsense made complete sense now thought Brian, except for keeping the engagement a secret, why did they need to keep it a secret that they're engaged for her to practice a magic act for the variety show? 'Hang on' he said, going over to the door where the hat had flown in. He started running his hand across the space in the doorway, searching for the string or thread Cassie must have used to pull the hat in on. 'Ahhhh' he said then 'the string is just on the hat, you pull that through when you pull in the hat, of course!' He walked over to Cassie and motioned to her hat. 'May I?' he asked.

Cassie took the hat from her head and handed it to Brian, smirking. 'By all means' she said as she handed it over.

Brian carefully looked over the whole hat and not only couldn't find any string or thread but he also couldn't find anywhere that any string or thread had even been attached. 'Very good, very well done' he murmured as he looked.

'Lumos!' said Cassie suddenly as he looked 'Would this help?' she asked, shining a light on the hat for him.

'Oh thanks, yeah, that is useful' he said glancing up at her and then noticing where the light was coming from, the end of the stick she was holding was now lit up like a torch.

'Ooooo it's a torch as well, that's a handy gadget' he said, 'nice prop!' and he carried on looking over the hat for the third time but with the extra light now he was bound to see the little detail he was missing. He didn't.

'Ok I give up' he said, 'how did you do it, that was very effective.'

'Magic' said Cassie. 'I cast a summoning spell.'

'Yeah yeah' said Brian, 'a magician doesn't reveal her secrets, but come on, you can tell me.'

'Think about it' said Cassie, 'if I'd set that up somehow, how would I know that you'd want me to go and fetch my pointed hat? Brian thought about this for a minute, replaying the conversation which led to that.

'You were talking about being a witch, I think anyone would mention pointy hats if you told them that, so then you volunteered that you have one and you offered to go and get it, that was a simple manipulation. Well done though, I didn't realise at the time you were doing that, very good' he said quite proudly before he remembered that he was meant to be annoyed with her, she is wasting his time with this when she was meant to be telling him the real reason they've had to keep their engagement a secret.

'Alright,' said Cassie 'Pick something else and I'll summon that instead, anything at all, but within reason, I don't want to smash down my door or anything' she added hastily.

Brian tried to think of the most obscure thing in Cassie's house he could think of, and something it would be really hard to just pull along on a string. Something heavy and solid then, but not too big as Cassie said she didn't want to break her house. Then he thought of the perfect thing.

'There's no way you can tie string around this one' he said triumphantly. 'That glowing glass ball you grabbed off once.'

'Ah, my remembrall' said Cassie, 'no problem at all.' Brian was surprised by this response, he was expecting to be told this wasn't possible for a couple of reasons, firstly because she hadn't prepared that item since it was something she kept locked away so he wasn't really supposed to know about it at all and secondly because she didn't want him knowing about it so why would she get it out for the sake of a trick?

'Accio Remembrall!' said Cassie, and he heard the sound of splintering wood from upstairs and the glass ball, now clear, came flying into the room and straight into Cassie's waiting hand.

'Wow!' was Brian's only response to this.

'Have I proved it yet?' asked Cassie, putting the glass ball down on her bookcase.

'How did you do that?' asked Brian incredulously.

Cassie sighed, but smiled. 'Magic Brian, with magic. I'm a witch.'

'Come on' he said 'really how. It was very impressive, count me impressed, great act, I love the touch of offering for the other person to choose with item, but I've had enough of this game now, either tell me how you did it or tell me what's really going on?'

'Sit down' said Cassie, gesturing to the sofa. 'Go on, have a seat.' She put her hands on his shoulders, led him backwards to the sofa and gently pressed down and Brian naturally succumbed and sat down on the sofa. 'Ok, now this one should be fun' she said. 'Wingardium Leviosa' and with a swish and a flick of her stick, the sofa started slowly rising up from the ground with him sat on it.

'Seriously?' he asked, 'you're doing a levitation trick on me now? That's the oldest trick in the book. Are you going to start passing rings around me now to prove how I'm really levitating?'

Cassie looked particularly annoyed at this comment and with a quick flick of her stick, suddenly the sofa crashed to the ground and with the impact Brian felt his jaw clamp together and felt the sharp stab of pain as he bit his tongue.

'Ow!' he yelled with his tongue half stuck out of his mouth now. ''At 'eally 'urt' he said angrily but he realised somewhat comedically with his tongue hanging out. He could taste the blood and he knew this was going to hurt for a few more days yet.

'Oh Bri, I'm sorry' said Cassie rushing over. 'I didn't think dropping you from that height would hurt, I just didn't think, I'm sorry!' She knelt down on the floor next to him and grabbed his head.

'Stick out your tongue and say ahhhh' she said.

'Ahhhh' responded Brian, dutifully sticking his tongue out.

'Ooof yeah, that looks like it'll sting' she said. 'Wait here.' Cassie got up, went over to the bookcase and knelt down to the locked drawers underneath the shelves. She waved that ornamental stick around again and time she said 'Alohomora!'. Brian heard the locks in the drawers click as they all unlocked themselves and he was really baffled for an explanation on that one.

She opened the top drawer and there were dozens of small bottles and jars. Most of them seemed to be sealed with corks and as Cassie lifted them out the check their labels he could see that their labels looked like something you see on jars in a museum. The things inside them looked even stranger though; bright, most of them vivid colours like deep purple and florescent yellow. One of them was sparkling but not in the same way glitter sparkles but more in the same way that a star twinkles.

'Aha' she said on about the tenth bottle she pulled out, 'I knew I had some here somewhere.' She lifted out a bottle with a thin neck and a round domed bottom. The contents looked thick and slimy and were an very unclean looking brown colour. This didn't put Brian at ease.

'This is a regenerating remedy which is a brilliant little potion for sorting out painful little nicks like this one.'

'Potion?' said Brian dubiously. 'A potion? That looks like drain slime.'

'It's not a difficult potion' she said. 'Oh of course, I haven't said have I, I'm a healer really!'

'A healer? Like those religious nuts who touch people and think they've healed them?' asked Brian.

'Like what?' asked Carrie confused. 'No, I heal other witches and wizards, usually from injuries caused by magic or from magical diseases, but from the occasional more mundane thing as well. I'm a healer, I heal people with magical potions and spells.' She said this in such a matter of fact way that Brian almost started to believe her, but that was all rubbish of course, part of this silly story she'd concocted to try out a few magic tricks on him. Very good magic tricks, but magic tricks nonetheless.

'Here, let me put some on your tongue and you'll see' said Cassie coming over to Brian with the bottle.

'Eurgh!' said Brian, sitting back on the sofa to get a few inches further away from that disgusting looking bottle of slime. 'You're not putting that sludge anywhere near me, goodness only knows what rubbish it's made of!'

'It's not made of rubbish' said Cassie defensively, 'it's mostly made of horned slugs, flobberworm mucus and salamander blood'

'Is that supposed to make we want to try some?' asked Brian incredulously. He couldn't think of anything which sounded more disgusting than that; the drain slime he was sure it probably actually was sounded more appealing that the ingredients Cassie had just listed.

'I just need to dab a tiny bit on you tongue' said Cassie, uncorking the bottle. The smell on the contents hit Brian and made an involuntary heave.

'Oh my god, that smells disgusting, get it away from me!' said Brian almost desperately now. He put his hand over his mouth to block Cassie being able to get to it.

'Trust me' said Cassie, 'really, it'll help in an instant. Like magic as you muggles say!'

'What the hell is a muggle?' asked Brian, though through his hand it just came out as a series of muffled noises.

'I can't understand you with your hand over your mouth Bri' said Cassie, frowning now and reminding Brian how she was with patients at the hospital when they didn't do exactly as they were told. 'Last chance before I make you' said Cassie firmly.

Brian kept his hand clamped over his mouth and he shook his head from side to side. This really was taking her magician fantasy too far, he wasn't about to go shoving brown goo into his mouth for the sake of her game.

'Petrificus Totalis!' said Cassie, waving that ornate stick around yet again and Brian felt his arms suddenly snap to his sides and he couldn't move a muscle.

Cassie put a few drops of the slime from the bottle onto her finger and pushed it into Brian's mouth. He tried desperately to close it when he saw what she was doing but he couldn't move anything, he couldn't even blink, he was completely paralysed! He felt the slime start to coat his tongue and then within a couple of seconds the pain on his tongue had gone, completely gone.

'Finite Incantatum!' said Cassie waving her stick again and instantly Brian could move again.

'What was that?' he asked in disbelief. 'How did you do that?'

'I told you, it's a pretty basic potion of horned slugs, flubberwo-'

'No, not that' interrupted Brian 'How did you paralyse me? That was, it was… well, it was impossible!'

'It was just a spell' said Cassie casually. 'We learnt that one in Defence Against the Dark Arts at school. Oh school, I can't wait to tell you all about school, it's the most incredible place. It's call-'

'What do you mean it was just a spell?' asked Brian. He didn't want to hear about her school now, he needed to know what was going on, this was starting to feel like it might actually be the truth, he couldn't think of any other explanation. 'And what's that stick you keep waving around?'

'Oh this?' asked Cassie, holding up the stick. 'It's my wand.'

'Shouldn't wands be black things with white tips?' asked Brian who had quite liked watching magicians when he was a child and he remembered distinctly that they all had a magic wand which looked like that.

'This is a real wand' said Cassie. 'Fourteen and a quarter inches, aspen with a core of dragon heartstring, reasonably supple' she recited. 'I got it at Ollivanders when I was eleven, everyone gets their wands from Ollivanders, he makes the best wands' she gushed, starting rambling again 'When we went there to get Ha-'

'A real wand?' interjected Brian. 'What do you mean a real wand?' Did she mean it was an actual object not something she was imagining, or did she really mean it is a real instrument of magic? She must mean real magic, how else could she have paralysed me like that? All these thoughts were whirling around Brian's head but he wasn't managing to put them into words to ask Cassie.

'I mean a real wand' said Cassie 'a real magic wand. This is what I use to do magic, I can't do any magic without it so please be very very careful with it' she said as she handed the wand to him to take a look. Brian took the wand as it was handed to him. He could see it was carved down the length of the wand which tapered a little towards the end and when he held it in his hand how Cassie had been holding it, he could feel it was shaped slightly to fit into a hand better. He went to bend it and it felt like a really sturdy, solid piece of wood despite how thin it was though it did bend a bit when he tried. He looked up at Cassie who was watching him with a big smile on her face and he found he couldn't help but believe her.

'You mean it don't you' he said as he handed the wand back. 'You really can do magic'

Cassie took the wand from Brian and said 'Orchideous!' and a bouquet of flowers shot out of the end of the wand. 'I really do mean it, I really can do magic' she said.

Brian saw Cassie in a whole new light and he'd never been more amazed by her than he was at this moment.

'You're incredible!' was all he managed to say as he stared at her in awe, feeling insignificant next to her.

There was a knock at the living room door and a man and woman walked through the already open door dressed in suits. Brian had forgotten that Cassie had said they were going to have visitors until they walked in.

'Good evening Mr Cooper' said the woman who held out her hand. Brian took her hand to shake it and found she had a much firmer handshake than he did and he was glad it didn't last long. The man stood slightly behind her and didn't say a word. 'I'm Adrastea Dippet from the Department of Muggle Relations at the Ministry of Magic'

'From the what at the what?' asked Brian, not quite understanding what she had said.

'The Department of Muggle Relations at the Ministry of Magic' repeated Adrastea patiently. 'You're a muggle you see, that's what us magical folk call the non-magical folk, and you my dear are not magical so you're a muggle. Department of Muggle Relations, we're here to talk to people like yourself, muggles who have found they need to know about the magical world.

'I'm a…muggle' said Brian slightly dubiously. 'And you're from a ministry did you say?' he asked.

'The Ministry of Magic' replied Adrastea. 'Think of the Ministry as being like your government but for all things magical.'

'There's a Ministry of Magic, and I'm a muggle' repeated Brian, not quite taking everything in as it had all come as quite a shock.

'Cassandra here applied for permission to tell you everything now that you're engaged' continued Adrastea. 'Congratulations by the way!' and she gave Brian a big bear hug before letting him go and continuing as though the hug hadn't just happened. 'So we granted the permission and here we are!'

'Here we are' repeated Brian, unable to find his own words and finding it much easier to simply repeat ones he had just heard.

'But there's something very important dear' said Adrastea with a suddenly serious look on her face. 'This is vitally important for the entire magical community, I can't stress the absolute importance of this enough.' This got Brian's attention as Adrastea conveyed the importance of what she was about to say to him. 'Are you listening?' she asked,

'Yes' replied Brian immediately, 'very important, I'm listening. What is it?'

'Knowledge of the magical community, of the existence of magic or of witches and wizards must remain _absolutely secret_ from all muggles.' She paused to let this sink in with Brian. 'You cannot tell anyone else what you know or allow them to discover it themselves.'

'Right' said Brian, trying to take that in along with everything else.

'Not your father or your mother, not your friends or your colleagues, not a single person' she stressed.

'Not a single person' he murmured as he started to understand the gravitas of this. 'Not my mother… my mother… the wedding'

'Your mother and everyone else must remain ignorant of magic for the wedding, before the wedding and after the wedding, absolutely and always' emphasised Adrastea. 'We have a department at the Ministry which specialises in detecting when this type of breach occurs and very serious measure have to be taken to try to resolve the situation. If this happens with you Mr Cooper then you will probably find that your own memory is erased of this knowledge and it is entirely possible that Cassandra will find she is unable to enter into a marriage with you if you are unable to know this about her. Do you understand the seriousness of this secrecy Mr Cooper?' Adrastea looked almost frightening as she asked this. Brian considered how difficult it would be to keep a big secret like this from people but he realised that Cassie has been doing that the entire time they have been together and he didn't suspect for a moment that she was a witch, that she could do real magic, so he thought if she can do it, then he can do it for her.

'I understand' he said 'I won't disclose it to anyone.' Cassie threw her arms around him in a big hug and Adrastea's face relaxed back into a big smile; the man standing just behind her kept the same stern look on his face that he had since he walked into the room though.

'Then we'll be on our way then' said Adrastea, 'I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about!'

Adrastea and the man she was with walked over to the fireplace which seemed a very odd thing to do when the front door was the other way completely. 'Is this the floo powder here dear?' asked Adrastea, pointing to a little pot on the mantle piece Brian had never noticed before.

'Oh yes, sorry', said Cassie, still with her arms around Brian 'that's the one'

Adrastea opened the pot, took out a pinch of something from inside it and threw it into the fire in the fireplace. The flames turned bright green and rose so tall the tips were out of sight. Then even more incredibly, Adrastea stepped right into the flames, though she didn't seem to get burnt at all, and she said loudly 'Ministry of Magic' and with a whoosh of flames she was gone and the flames, died down. The man who was left gave Cassie a curt nod then did the same thing as Adrastea and vanished as well.

'Oh yes' said Cassie, 'so my house is on the floo network. It's one of the ways that witches and wizards can get around' she explained. And that started a long night of Cassie explaining all about the magical world, how it worked, where she'd gone to school and what she really did as her job.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

'They'll be here soon' said Cassie, as Brian was still trying to unpack boxes of his stuff.

'I know, I just wanted to feel like I live here too now before they all arrive' said Brian.

After Cassie had told Brian that she is a witch and explained everything and she nervously asked him if he still wanted to marry her, there wasn't a single hesitation in Brian's answer that of course he does. They decided he should move in as soon as possible now that they could do without Cassie going crazy trying to keep it all a secret and with the engagement to celebrate as well they thought they'd have both the families come and visit for an engagement and housewarming party.

'How are your lot getting here?' he asked 'We don't want them popping out of the fireplace when my family is all here!'

'Don't worry' said Cassie 'that's under control. They're going to apparate into the back garden and come round to the front door'

Cassie had explained apparition to Brian the night she'd told him everything, but he hadn't seen it in action and it sounded pretty terrifying to him.

'Are they all happy to apparate then?' he asked. 'Not all of them but the ones that aren't that confident with just side-along apparate with someone else' she replied casually, as though people disappearing from one place and magically appearing at another was a perfectly everyday thing. Though it struck Brian that for Cassie it probably was a perfectly everyday thing.

There was a brisk knock at the door and Cassie's stomach somersaulted, she had never had any muggles in her house other than Brian before and she'd always been able to keep a very close eye on him and he'd respected her privacy when she'd told him some places were off limits; she didn't think she could say the same for all of his muggle family though. This was going to be a tough night.

'I'll get it' said Cassie as she trotted down the stairs to the front door. She opened the door and to her relief it was her mum and dad.

'Cassandra darling' said Cassie's mum in greeting, 'give your mum a big hug, I'm so happy for you darling.' Cassie found herself forced into a big hug but she was so nervous it actually helped her relax a little.

'My turn' said her dad, giving her a much more moderate hug 'Congratulations my little Cassie' he said. I'm so happy for you both.'

Brian appeared at the bottom of the stairs to greet Cassie's parents as his future in-laws for the first time. He'd met them plenty of times before as they visited Cassie often so he inevitably had met up with them for dinner quite a number of times in the three years they'd been together but Cassie had always told him that they lived abroad and that's why he and Cassie never went to visit them but as Cassie had explained since he found out about the magic, they actually live only about twenty miles away; the reason they never went to their house is because of all the magical objects and Cassie's mum's refusal to stop using magic just so that a muggle can visit. Brian still found it odd to think of himself as a muggle, a completely alien term which he couldn't help but feel was derogatory but the more he heard about the magical world Cassie had spent her life in, the more alien he found himself feeling so he was feeling more comfortable with the term the more he learnt.

'Hello Mrs Crescent, hello Mr Crescent' said Brian politely when he reached the bottom of the stairs, painfully aware of the fact that he hadn't asked Cassie's dad for her hand in marriage and feeling very uncomfortable for having gone ahead in asking her without having obtained that permission. Brian was quite a traditional person but as he had no idea where her parents lived and when he had tried to ask for a phone number for them Cassie had told him that they were rarely in so there was no point in ever phoning them then as she'd turned her attention to why he would want it and the best he could think of was that it was emergencies then he changed the subject quickly. Cassie had since explained that witches and wizards don't have telephones as they have magical means of communicating so he never really had a chance to ask for her hand but he felt bad for not having done so nonetheless.

'Well now Brian, since you're going to be one of the family' replied Cassie's mum, 'I think it's time you called us Romilda and Augustus, don't you?'

This was a very nice gesture but one which Brian didn't feel very comfortable with; he didn't know Cassie's parents very well at all and he'd been brought up to not call people of your parents' generation by the first names but Brian felt it would be very rude not to comply so he said 'Hello Romilda and Augustus, it's lovely to see you again.' Romilda then did something she had never done before and gave Brian a big hug. This much physical contact with someone he both respected and feared was a mix of discomfort and terror for Brian but he plastered on a smile and gave a small squeeze back until Romilda let her go. Thankfully Augustus only greeted him with a firm handshake and this relaxed Brian a little again.

'Well come on through' said Cassie, gesturing them into the house and ushering them into the living room.

'It's rather peculiar arriving through the front door' said Romilda as they walked through into the living room, 'feels like we're not family having to wait outside to come in.' Brian took this to mean that they usually arrived using the fireplace and he couldn't say he relished the though of his future in-laws popping out into the living room without any notice whenever they liked but there wasn't really anything he could do to stop them so he hoped he'd just eventually get used to it. He made a mental note to ask Cassie later if it's possible to disconnect the fireplace from this "floo network" she'd described.

'Oh!' exclaimed Romilda as they walked into the living room. 'This looks quite different doesn't It, don't you think Augustus, quite… different'

Brian hadn't managed to unpack very much of his things into the house yet but with his family coming round Cassie had cleared out the whole of the downstairs of anything she could think of that was magical so with some of his additions as well (like his big television and his DVD collection), the living room was looking quite different to how it normally did. Brian got the idea from Romilda's reaction that this wasn't something she particularly welcomed but he lived here too now and he felt it was only right that things looked a bit different.

'Of course it does mum' said Cassie. 'We live together now, and I've had to muggle-proof everything too of course'

'Oh yes love, I understand' she said, composing herself a little better now 'it'll just take me a little getting used to.'

'It looks nice enough to me' said Augustus, 'can't really see much of a difference except for this big muggle box here'. He pointed to Brian's television.

'That's my big screen TV' said Brian, trying to remind them that he was there as they seemed to be talking about muggles and things as though he wasn't in the room as well.

'TV' repeated Romilda as though the letters were alien to her. 'I don't really understand these muggle things' she said. She settled herself on the sofa so that she was taking up two seats when she could fit into the space of one and motioned for Augustus to sit down next to her. Brian and Cassie perched themselves on the camping chairs they'd set up in the room to provide extra seating.

'You could make this sofa a bit bigger' said Romilda. Here we go thought Cassie, the home improvement tips were bound to start now; her mum could never resist telling her how she could improve things whenever she came to visit.

'I've been trying to keep things as muggle as I can' said Cassie 'considering I've had Brian visiting for a long time now, I think he would have found it suspicious if the sofa in my little living room seated ten people, don't you?'

'Then you could have made the house bigger too love' replied Romilda, not to be deterred. 'There's no need for you to live in such a tiny place, I'm sure you could stretch it out a little. What was the point in getting all those good grades at Hogwarts if you're just going to live like a muggle?' Cassie's only compensation through her mum's barrage of criticism was that she couldn't continue like this once Brian's family arrived.

'I think the neighbours would get suspicious too then mum' she said. 'I'm quite happy with the house as it is, there's really no problem with it'

'Well you're about to have a lot of people here for a party and there's only me and your dad who look like they're going to have a nice seat since you've refused to make any changes' Romilda continued.

'And it's not like I have parties here all the time is it mum?' said Cassie, getting frustrated already, this is exactly why she didn't like her mum visiting too much. 'And there's not really a lot of people coming either is there? Is Hannah coming later?'

'Hannah can't make it' said Romilda, sounding quite annoyed. Cassie's younger sister Hannah was still at Hogwarts, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that almost all the witches and wizards from Britain and Ireland attend from being eleven years-old to being eighteen. It's a boarding school though and they don't usually let their pupils have a pass out from school to go to a party so Cassie wasn't too surprised but her mum had seemed sure she was coming when she'd spoken to her yesterday.

'McGonagall said "A student's sibling having a party doesn't mean that the student can break the school rules"' said Romilda, doing her best impression of the Scottish headmistress as she quoted her and Cassie burst out laughing at the accuracy of it. 'I don't think it's funny Cassandra'

'Sorry mum, but you do a great impression' said Cassie, still guffawing. 'That's a shame though, I wanted to ask her to be my bridesmaid when she was here.'

'You'll have to send her an owl then' said Romilda, still sounding cross 'and while you're at it you could write to McGonagall saying how disappointed you are that Hannah wasn't allowed to come.'

The doorbell rang then, something her own parents hadn't done as they didn't know what one was, and Cassie was nearly happy to let muggles into her house to stop her mum's endless complaining, although at least it wasn't her house she was complaining about anymore.

Brian came with her to the front door which Cassie was really relieved about. She had met Brian's parents a few times but she didn't know how they would react to her home, or rather their home, and she was terrified that they would discover some magic or her mum would speak out of turn forgetting there were muggles there.

She opened the door to Brian's parents and was greeted with an immediate cry of 'Congratulations!' in unison by them both.

'Thanks' she said as she ushered them inside. She had an awkward moment with Brian's mum Martha first as they didn't know if they should hug or kiss each other on the cheek or shake hands or something completely different. They seemed to settle for a half hug with their cheeks pressed against each other and Cassie did the same with Brian's dad Howard.

'We brought this for you as well' said Howard, handing a bottle of champagne to Brian; Cassie and Brian looked at each other as they really didn't feel like any more champagne anytime soon but Cassie thought it'd be good to open it tonight when they could all share it.

'Come in both of you' said Cassie, 'and welcome to our home.'

'It's lovely' said Martha as she stood hunched in the narrow and crowded hallway, at least she's polite thought Cassie, not like her own mum. She started to relax a little about how the evening would go.

'My mum and dad are already here' Cassie said as she led them through into the living room.

Her mum and dad both stood up from the sofa when Martha and Howard came into the room which Cassie was really relieved about and they all shook hands and Brian handled the introductions. The doorbell rang again then and Cassie went to answer it, leaving three muggles at the mercy of her parents which made her pretty uneasy but it would only be for a few minutes at least.

This time it was Brian's Aunt Margaret and Uncle George; they too had come with a bottle of champagne for them and she took them into the living room as well.

'I thought Cassie's sister was going to be here tonight for us to meet?' asked Martha once they'd managed to sort out seats for everyone but Cassie and Brian. Brian panicked a little at the mention of Hannah knowing about the very magical school she was at.

'She's at boarding school and they wouldn't let her come away for the weekend just for a party' explained Cassie calmly. Brian wasn't used to keeping this huge secret yet and with all the things he had just learnt about he wanted to tell him family all about it so that they could know what an amazing world Cassie had come from and how amazing she really is, though they already thought she was too good for him since she's a doctor and he's a nurse, never quite valuing all that he did and all that he knew to do his job.

'Boarding school?' asked Martha with raised eyebrows. 'So it's a public school is it?' Brian knew this was his mum assessing the wealth of Cassie's parents; if they were sending her to a public school, as a boarder no less, then they must be rich. He couldn't really tell them that it's not a public school, it's a wizard school and they don't have to pay school fees as it's the only one in the country.

'Oh no' replied Romilda 'it's not public at all, it's very private in fact, very private.' Martha looked quite confused at this reply as Romilda hadn't understood the muggle school terminology, but thankfully she thought it was a joke and laughed heartily at it, which confused Romilda and Augustus a bit but the subject soon moved on much to Brian's relief.

Brian was in charge of cooking since Cassie had never completely gotten to grips with the muggle ways of cooking but it was just a finger buffet so he was mostly just heating things up Cassie's over, or rather, their oven. It was going to take him quite a bit of getting used to before he would start calling the house theirs instead of Cassie's but he hoped he would get there soon.

After they'd served the finger food, Brian and Cassie decided it'd be a good idea to open at least one of those bottles of champagne so that everyone could help them drink it. They had a look in the cupboards though and they found that neither of them had any champagne glasses. Brian was just about to start getting some mis-matched wine glasses out of the cupboard when Cassie told him to stop, she dashed upstairs quietly and tiptoed back into the kitchen holding her wand.

'What are you doing?' Brian said in a panicked whisper.

'It's ok' whispered back Cassie.

'But you shout the spell when you use that thing' he whispered urgently, as it looked like she was about to do it.

'I don't have to' she whispered back 'I can do non-verbal magic too. Watch this!'

She moved her wand in a circle in the air and swept it forward and there on the worktop where she was pointing the wand there was now eight champagne glasses in two neat rows.

'That's amazing!' said Brian, forgetting to whisper this time, just as his mum came into the kitchen.

'What's amazing?' asked Martha 'Oh that stick is beautiful' she said as she saw the wand in Cassie's hand 'is that what you were saying is amazing?' She came over to where they were stood and started looking closely at the wand and Cassie looked like she was going to have a heart attack.

'Yeah' said Brian 'Isn't it lovely, I was saying how amazing it is that Cassie's sister carved it, she's very talented.'

'Incredibly' said Martha in wonder.

'But we left it out and it's meant to be kept safely upstairs so Cassie is just putting it away so it doesn't get damaged, aren't you Cassie'

'Yes' said Cassie, recovering from the panic now 'I need to put it away, sorry' and she dashed out of the kitchen the fastest Brian had ever seen her move.

They popped the champagne and shared it out and there were toasts to the two of them a few times. It felt great to Brian to finally be able to share the news and it felt great to Cassie to know that Brian was marrying her knowing that she's a witch.

It all seemed to be going perfectly, until Romilda mentioned something which was the start of all the problems Brian and Cassie would have for the next eight months.

'So, I've been coming up with some ideas for your wedding.'


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Hannah went down to the great hall for breakfast that morning feeling quite glum. Her sister had her engagement party the night before and she had really wanted to be there for it.

She got to the entrance hall and her best friend Maggie was already there waiting for her.

'Morning' said Maggie cheerily.

'Morning' replied Hannah, trying to sound cheerier than she was feeling.

'What's wrong?' asked Maggie as they headed into the great hall together.

'I was just thinking about the party last night' said Hannah as they headed to the Hufflepuff table. 'I really with I could have been there.'

'Ah, of course' said Maggie, remembering how disappointed Hannah had been when McGonagall had told her she couldn't go.

They sat down together at the Hufflepuff table. Hannah is a Hufflepuff but Maggie is a Ravenclaw, which made things a bit harder to hang out with each other than if they were in the same house but that never stopped them. They met on the 1st of September 2007 on the Hogwarts Express on their way to school in their very first year five years ago and they'd been best friends ever since. It wasn't unusual to see students from different houses sitting together in the great hall, though Hannah had heard that years ago the students would never mix like that, she couldn't understand why though. There was house rivalry of course, with the house cup and the quidditch but they had lessons with the other houses so it made sense to Hannah to sit with them in the great hall too.

'Yeah, she's marrying a muggle you know' said Hannah 'and she's told him everything now, I was really wanting to meet him and talk to him about it.'

'Really?' asked Maggie. 'I didn't think it was _that_ important to you'

'Well you know I love a party' Hannah said 'and I miss seeing my sister since she left school and I only see her at the holidays now.' She smiled a little then as she said 'I know I have plenty of time to get to know Brian once I've finished my N.E.W.T.s and all, but talking to him about Cassie telling him everything now would be perfect for my Muggle Studies Case Study!'

They both laughed as they both knew how much Hannah missed her sister but she was also doing her best to match her sisters grades for N.E.W.T.s; the problem with having an accomplished older sister was always trying to live up to her, but the sisters got on really well so it was never a serious rivalry.

Hannah and Maggie tucked into their porridge at the table and another of their friends came over to sit with them, another Ravenclaw girl called Silvestris.

'Hi Silv' said Hannah through a mouthful of porridge.

'Guess what' said Silv to both of them, before she'd even given Maggie a chance to say hello as well.

'Hi Silv' said Maggie 'How're you?'

'Hi, hi' said Silv to both of them, practically bursting at whatever she had to say. 'You'll never guess!' she said.

'You'd better tell us then hadn't you' said Hannah 'before you burst apart at the seams!'

'There's a new notice up on the noticeboard in the common room, did you see it?' she blurted out.

Hannah and Maggie looked at each other and both shrugged.

'I didn't see it' said Hannah.

'Me neither' said Maggie.

'It's so exciting!' said Silv. 'There's going to be an inter-school duelling competition!' This really was big news; Hannah's spoon fell from her hand to the bowl as thoughts of breakfast left her at this excitement.

'Wow!' said Maggie, impressed. 'We have to try out!'

'Good luck' said Hannah 'I'll be your best supporter and I'll even let you practice on me, as long as you promise to fix me afterwards that is' she said with a wink.

'What _are_ you talking about?' asked Silv, 'if we're in, you're in.'

'Oh no' said Hannah, 'We're into N.E.W.T.s now, and there's no way I'm going to beat you Ravenclaw types, you're probably reading books in your sleep even' she said, playfully nudging Silv who was sat next to her.

'I've seen you in Defence Against the Dark Arts classes' said Maggie, as the Hufflepuffs took their lessons with the Ravenclaws for DADA for their O.W.L.s. 'and what grade did you get in your O.W.L. then?'

'It might have been an O' mumbled Hannah. O stood for Outstanding and was the highest grade you could achieve in wizarding exams. 'But I had my sister to practice with when I was at home, she's awesome at DADA, I heard Professor Slinkhard say she got 95% in her O.W.L., but I don't know if he was just saying that to make me want to beat her' she said with a laugh. 'But honestly, I don't want to make a fool of myself in front of everyone'

'Han, we're trying out' said Maggie 'and we only got Es at O.W.L.' E stood for Exceeds Expectations and was the second highest grade you could achieve in wizarding exams but Hannah thought that not getting the highest grade probably felt like failing to a Ravenclaw. 'It was that boggart that got me, I just froze, I was already scared enough of failing my exam without having to face a giant, scary clown as well!' Hannah remembered when this had happened when they'd practiced with a boggart in class; boggarts turn themselves into whatever you fear the most so they look different to everyone. Some of the students were almost as terrified as Maggie was when she faced it, but Hannah was in the majority in that case, of not knowing what on earth it was. Maggie was muggle-born and wizards didn't have anything like clowns or circuses and so the wizard-born students weren't scared of it at all, except for when it opened its mouth and all its teeth were pointed. Professor Slinkhard had to step in and get rid of the boggart himself as Maggie hadn't been able to. Hannah had wondered to herself at that point what the same class would be like with the Gryffindors and the Slytherins, probably all trying to one-up each other on how scary their boggarts were and showing off at getting rid of it, since the Gryffindors seemed to Hannah to be brave to the point of suicidal and the Slytherins just had to win, win rather than be the best, and they'd find any way to do it usually.

'What about the Gryffindors and the Slytherins?' asked Hannah, following on from her chain of thought. 'There's bound to be loads of them who try out for the team too and I don't really fancy being in the middle of their death match!'

'You have a point' said Silv 'but you know as well as I do that if you keep a cool head you're better than all of them any day.

Hannah was saved from further protestations by a flurry of wings above her head and a very tired looking Tilly holding a letter, landing on the table in front of her and knocking over her bowl of porridge.

'Tilly!' exclaimed Hannah 'Are you alright?' She scooped up the little owl and blobs of porridge started dripping from her. Hannah pulled her wand out of her pocket and said 'Scourgify!' with a flick and all the remnants of porridge zoomed off the little owl and landed with a splat onto the table. Meanwhile, Maggie had rescued the letter from the porridge spillage and was holding it out for Hannah.

'Here you go Han' said Maggie. 'Who's it from?'

Hannah peered at the handwriting though she was pretty sure she already knew since they wrote to each other at least once a week. 'It's from Cassie. If she wrote it after the party then poor Tilly must have been flying hard all night, you poor little thing' said Hannah. 'You have a rest here and I'll take you off to the owlery as soon as I'm finished here so you don't need to fly anymore.' Tilly gave a little hoot which Hannah took to mean she'd understood and she was happy just to rest.

'Are you opening it here?' asked Maggie, who was used to how often Hannah got letters from her sister and knew they often got shoved into her robes pocket to read later.

'Yeah' said Hannah, pulling open the wax seal on the parchment and opening up the letter 'it's all happening at the moment, I'm dying to know what I'm missing!'

She read the letter out loud to her friends; she was bound to tell them everything it said anyway so this was just saving time.

Han-Han,

Oh boy was I missing you this evening! We had the engagement party as you know and I was so disappointed when mum told me you weren't coming afterall. Did you know you weren't going to be allowed or was it a surprise? Because mum had told me you were definitely coming but I'm wondering if that was one of those times when she thinks if she stubbornly believes something to be true then it's bound to happen!

I was hoping to have a gossip with you tonight in person so I guess I'll have to give you the gossip by letter instead. Things here have been a complete whirlwind. From the moment Bri proposed everything got turned upside down. I had to have two wizards (well a witch and a wizard) from the Ministry in the house listening in when I told him. He wouldn't believe me for the longest time, he seemed to think I was one of those muggle magicians, can you imagine?! Anyway, I finally persuaded him when I put him in a full body bind jinx, that was a bit naughty but the ministry guys didn't complain and I let him go as soon as I'd put a potion on him. We talked the whole night as I told him about Hogwarts, about Hogsmeade, about the Ministry, my job, owl post, quidditch, everything! It's amazing how much he just didn't know about me.

Thank goodness I had some Wideye Potion in the house or we'd never have made it through work the next day. He keeps coming up with funny questions all the time as he tries to take it all in. "Where at Kings Cross does the Hogwarts Express go from? I've never seen a steam engine train there" and he laughed so much when I told him about platform nine and three-quarters. I want to take him to Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade to show him all the wonderful shops there. Can you even comprehend how he's never been to a wizard shop, isn't it mad!

I can't tell you how scared I was that he wouldn't want to marry me any more once I told him. You hear about these marriages or engagements that go bad that way, when the muggle thinks they're a freak, or they can't get over the betrayal of all the lies or when they can't keep it secret and they get their memories obliviated and it's like they'd never even met the witch or wizard. I think that's the saddest kind.

Anyway, Bri moved in that weekend. I'd wanted to live with him for ages but there's no way I could hide everything all the time like that, so it was such a relief to be able to move in together! He's brought in all kinds of weird muggle stuff but I'm pretty familiar with it all from round his place. I've put some enlargement charms on a few of the cupboards to fit everything in but a visiting muggle would never notice that so I think I'm ok doing that spell.

So we had the engagement party tonight, boy did I wish you were there. You have NO IDEA how stressful it is having muggles in your house, let alone muggles that you want to impress because they're going to be your family too soon, and even worse when MUM is there too! She said so many things that they mustn't have known what she was talking about but thankfully they were all too polite to question her, so now all of Bri's family thinks mum is a loony – not far wrong!

There was another reason I was looking forward to you being at the party tonight, so that I could ask you this in person, but since I won't see you till the Christmas break now I'll ask you by letter instead. Are you ready? Hannah, my little sis, will you be the bridesmaid at my wedding please?

Can't wait to hear from you!

Give Tilly a cuddle from me and make sure she's ok before you send her back with your letter.

Lots of love,

Cassie

Hannah stopped reading the letter with a big grin on her face, she was going to be bridesmaid.

'I was hoping she was going to ask you that!' exclaimed Maggie in delight.

'What do you think you'll wear?' asked Silv 'Do you think it'll be a muggle wedding?'

'I've never been to a muggle wedding' said Maggie

'Me neither' continued Silv 'I wonder what they're like'

Hannah let them babble away around her about weddings they'd been to and times when they'd been a bridesmaid as little girls whilst Hannah daydreamed about what her sister's big day was going to look at and what part she would play in that.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

Cassie had been so happy when her sister Hannah was as excited as she was to be her bridesmaid at the wedding. Bri had since asked his brother who lives in America now to be his best man and Bri had even brought home a magazine he'd seen in the shop in the hospital which was about weddings.

Cassie had only been to a couple of weddings when she was a kid and she couldn't remember much about them and she'd never been to a muggle wedding but she was pretty relaxed about it all. They were only wanting a small wedding, they didn't know all that many people between them and neither of them wanted a really huge fuss, and besides, a smaller wedding meant less chance of something going wrong with all those witches and wizards in the same place as muggles.

It was a Friday morning, about two weeks after the engagement party, and Cassie and Brian both found themselves with a day off work on the same day so they'd settled down in the living room that morning with a pot of tea on the table, Brian having a read through the last few days papers as he'd fallen behind with work being busy and Cassie flicking through the last few days of the Daily Prophet which is the wizarding newspaper. Cassie loved not having to hide her copies of the Daily Prophet from Brian anymore, she'd always wanted them to be able to sit and read the papers together but even if you didn't read the headlines or stories it was obvious that the Daily Prophet is magical as all the photographs move. Cassie had still not put up any of her photographs around the house, which move as well like all wizards' photographs, just in case any muggles called round but a newspaper was easy enough to hide. They'd put up some of Brian's photographs around the place, mostly of the two of them, but Cassie found it quite unnerving the way the pictures never moved, they just stayed there in that fixed position like they were statues.

The paper in front of Cassie suddenly turned green and she knew that only meant one thing. She looked up to see her fireplace had become awash with green flames and her mum stepped out from them carrying what looked like a large book in her hands.

'Mum!' scalded Cassie. 'What have I told you about turning up unannounced now that Bri lives here too?' Brian looked a bit sheepish and shifted uncomfortably where he was sat on the sofa before deciding it was just better if he stood up.

'Didn't you get my owl love?' asked Romilda.

'No' said Cassie firmly.

'Well I sent it this morning, I thought it'd be here by now' said Romilda matter-of-factly. 'Well I sent you and owl and now here I am.' Romilda walked over to the sofa, picked up Brian's paper and carelessly tossed it onto the coffee table before sitting down where Brian had just been sat without actually acknowledging him.

'Good morning Mrs Crescent' said Brian, looking to Cassie for help but Cassie was just looking exasperatedly at her mum.

'Didn't I tell you to call me Romilda?' asked Romilda, looking at Brian for the first time.

'Sorry Mrs, I mean, sorry Romilda.' There was something about Cassie's mum which put Brian into a blind panic. He just found her so intimidating and he knew she would have preferred Cassie to be marrying a wizard too which was probably why he felt quite so inadequate around her. Cassie had explained to him about the so called pure blood families in wizarding society, those where the family line had always married other witches and wizards but as there were very few pure blood families left, those families marrying into other pure blood families meant that they were all already related through one means or another and that all sounded rather incestuous to Brian. Cassie had told him how her mum considered their family to be pure blood since all of her parents' parents were all witches and wizards but that before that there were marriages that wouldn't be considered 'pure' like marrying muggles like him and marrying witches and wizards that were 'muggle born'. This concept amazed Brian, that there were witches and wizards that were born to completely muggle parents; what a shock they must get when their child starts doing magic! At least, thought Brian, he'll be forewarned of that when he and Cassie eventually have kids of their own. Cassie had told him that her mum would have been perfectly happy with her marrying a muggle born wizard but she just couldn't get her head around why she wanted to marry a muggle. Brian tried not to take this personally, as it didn't seem to be any against him specifically, but he couldn't help but feel inadequate to her and as a result he seemed to end up acting the part as well.

'Cup of tea mum?' asked Cassie, gesturing to the pot of tea she had half covered on the coffee table with Brian's newspaper.

'I'd rather have a fresh one love' Romilda replied. 'And have you got any Puddifoot Tranquillity Tea instead?' Cassie was sure her mum was only asking for that because Brian was there and she was trying to make him feel left out somehow.

'No mum' said Cassie with an undertone of warning in her voice 'I have tea, just normal tea'

'I suppose that'll do then' said Romilda. Cassie picked up the pot of tea from the coffee table looking apologetically at Brian and took it into the kitchen to make a fresh pot.

Brian suddenly found himself at a complete loss of what to say or do as he was left alone in the room with Romilda and found he had a very strong urge to leave the room as quickly as possible.

'Erm' started Brian 'I'll let you ladies sit on the sofa, I'll go and get one of the camping chairs to sit on. I'll be back in a minute' and with that he dashed out of the room and then took his time getting the chair from the spare room upstairs.

By the time he came back down carrying the folded chair, Cassie was already on the sofa and there was a fresh pot of tea and three fresh mugs on the table along with a milk jug when he and Cassie had just been using the carton of milk earlier and she'd even put out a bowl of sugar cubes; Brian didn't even know they had sugar cubes!

He noticed that Romilda was critically surveying the room, frowning at the things of Brian's that she had already seen during the party and flat out staring at anything new since then.

'What's that?' she asked, pointing to a photograph of the two of them from their first anniversary trip to York stood outside the York Minster. Brian hadn't even had a chance to unfold his chair yet but he picked up the frame and brought it closer for Romilda to see.

'It's me and Cassie in York' he said. 'That was about two years ago now.'

Romilda sneered at the photograph and prodded it with her finger which was the oddest thing Brian had ever seen anyone do to a photo. 'If it's you two then why aren't you moving?' she asked. 'You look like someone has done a body bind hex on you!'

'That's how photos are for muggles remember mum' said Cassie, saving Brian from having to justify something he didn't have any power over. 'Their pictures don't move, they just capture that one fraction of a second remember, I've explained this before.' Brian thought Romilda probably knew exactly how muggle photographs worked and she was just trying to but him on the back foot, and he was frustrated to say that it was working.

'I like the photo' said Brian, feeling the need to assert some authority 'and I like having it up in here.' He took the frame back from Romilda and placed it back on the bookshelf where he had taken it from. He noticed Cassie sneak her wand out of her sleeve a little then and subtly gesture towards the photograph with it and he saw the whole thing grow ever so slightly. Cassie grinned mischievously at Brian as she slid her wand back up her sleeve. Brian had that lovely feeling of him and Cassie being a team against the world then, one of the things he loved about being with her so much. He unfolded the chair and sat down to endure her mum for however long she stayed for.

'Now love' said Romilda putting down her mug of tea and addressing Cassie, seeming to ignore Brian but this suited him fine in any case. 'I've brought this' she said picking up the big book she'd brought with her.

Cassie rolled her eyes a little but smiled nicely at her mum. 'And what is this?' asked Cassie, saying the line her mum obviously wanted her to say but not really wanting to know, she just wished her and Bri could have their day off together in peace.

'This is all the pictures I could find from when me and your dad got married and from when your Auntie Miriam got married, so that you can see what you need to do' Romilda said. Cassie raised an eyebrow but this subtle gesture was lost on her mum as she started flipping through the book. 'Here' said Romilda pointing to a picture from her own wedding. It was a picture showing Cassie's mum looking quite a bit younger as she walked down the aisle 'You see how I look like I'm gliding down the aisle' she said, and Cassie could see that she did indeed look to be gliding smoothly down the aisle but what Cassie was drawn to was how happy her mum looked, she'd couldn't remember ever seeing her mum with a smile that, she looked radiant.

'I see, yes' said Cassie.

'Well I was gliding' Romilda said. 'Small levitation charm and I literally floated down the aisle.' Romilda had a wistful smile on her face as she seemed to be remembering the feeling of it. 'So you have to do that love' she said turning her attention back to Cassie, 'so you'll want a dress that falls to the floor or we'll see your feet flailing about underneath and no-one wants to see that now love'.

'Er mum' Cassie said. 'I can't talk about the dress with Brian here.' Romilda looked over at Brian with an expression as though she was surprised to see him sitting there.

'Why ever not love?' she asked.

'I can't know anything about her dress before the day' said Brian. 'It's bad luck.'

Romilda snorted with laughter. 'Nonsense Brian, if we want you to know about her dress then you'll know about the dress, why would that be bad luck? Ridiculous' and she waved a dismissive hand towards Brian which left him completely speechless.

'Mum!' said Cassie shocked at her mum's behaviour. 'This is going to be a muggle wedding, you know that!'

'Yes love' said Romilda with a patronising smile 'I know there's going to be muggles there, that's why I'm telling you the things you need to do to make sure it's still a magical wedding but not so the muggles will know' she said as though this was the most obvious thing and didn't even really need pointing out.

'We're just going to have a muggle wedding though mum' said Cassie impatiently. 'We don't need to have magic there to get married.'

'Of course you need magic' said Romilda, completely dismissing everything Cassie had just said. 'You're a witch and quite an accomplished one at that. There's going to be lots of family there and you don't want them thinking you can't so a simple enchantment now do you?' Cassie started to reply but Romilda talked straight over her. 'Of course you don't, we need to make sure everyone's very impressed by it all or goodness knows what they'll think of us!'

Brian tuned out of the conversation, although calling it a conversation may be a bit generous as it was really Romilda talking and Cassie, resigned to her mother's opinion, just nodding along, barely even bothering to fake a smile. Brian knew that Cassie held the Statute of Secrecy in high regard, she wouldn't be able to do the work she did at the hospital they worked at together if she didn't, so he was confident that they would have a completely muggle wedding regardless of how much her mum seemed to insist otherwise. They had plenty of time for all that anyway, they were going to have a June wedding and it's only October now so they didn't need to worry just yet.

Brian had only seen Romilda carrying one book when she arrived but she had a bag over her shoulder which he hadn't noticed and she kept producing more and more things from it. Brian wasn't used to magic defying the laws of physics as he knew them still, so seeing so many things come from the bag which he knew couldn't fit in there interested him for a while but that was the only thing keeping him going through Romilda's tireless speech. She seemed to have collated every scrap of detail about every wedding that had ever happened in the magical world and some of them were extremely extravagantly magical indeed but there seemed very little point in looking at them at all when they were obviously completely irrelevant to their wedding.

It seemed to be the final straw when Romilda pulled out a very large piece of rolled up parchment, which upon unrolling was revealed to be a family tree.

'So I've gone to a lot of trouble to make you this love' said Romilda, pushing things along to table to make room for her rolling the parchment out flat. Brian picked up the mugs and teapot and other paraphernalia just before they would otherwise have been tipped off the table completely and landed on the floor making a complete mess. It occurred to Brian that there was probably a spell to stop them falling, probably a spell to clean up the mess it would have made and probably a spell to fix anything that broke, but other than this being completely against his instincts, it was his house too and he wanted to do things how they should be done.

'You shouldn't have gone to any trouble mum' said Cassie, now rolling her eyes. 'I never asked you to go to any trouble.'

'That's no way to say thank you' said Romilda and without missing a beat she carried on talking 'So I've taken the family tree and I've worked out who's still alive and only kept them on it, so this is the family you need to invite.'

The parchment filled the whole coffee table and it was about three times as wide as it was tall. Brian noticed that most of the lines didn't even meet at the top , which went as far as Cassie's great grandparents, so they weren't even close relations as the ties stemmed from further back in the family line than even three generations before Cassie.

'Why have you done this?' asked Cassie, finally having enough of her mum's ramblings about her wedding. 'I told you, we're having a small wedding.'

'Yes love, I know' said Romilda still sounding cheerful at hearing this which Brian realised meant she had no intention of paying any notice to what Cassie said. 'Only small love, so just family, that's why I've made it easy for you. Now I've spoken to about half of them already to make sure they'll be able to come' she continued.

'You've what?' asked Cassie, starting to lose her temper now. 'It's not up to you to invite people to our wedding mum' she said so loudly she was almost shouting.

'I think your father would disagree with that Cassandra' said Romilda, losing the happiness from her tone now. 'He's paying for it after all.'

Brian and Cassie hadn't discussed how they were going to fund the wedding yet, Brian didn't even know if they'd be funding it in Sterling or whatever money wizards use and if you could even exchange one for the other, it certainly wasn't an exchange rate he'd ever seen at the banks. From the look on Cassie's face then she wasn't aware of her father's plan to pay for the wedding either although that seemed to be a tradition that was common to both of their cultures, for the bride's family to pay for the wedding. Brian whimsically wondered if wizards had the old tradition of the bride coming with a dowry as well. He let out a very quiet chuckle at this thought and immediately regretted it as both heads of his fiancée and her mum snapped round to face him, both with a scowl on their faces.

'You think this is funny?' asked Cassie in a very threatening tone which Brian wasn't used to.

'If you don't think marrying my daughter is a topic worthy of being taken seriously then maybe you should reconsider it completely' said Romilda with almost a tone of triumph in her voice.

'No no' said Brian panicking 'I was just thinking about something else, sorry!' Cassie frowned at him and he realised he really wasn't helping the situation. 'We, er…' stuttered Brian, having not discussed the finances of the wedding with Cassie yet he wasn't sure what he should be saying 'We don't know if my parents are wanting to contribute yet' he said, fumbling for any excuse why Romilda shouldn't feel she has the rights to full control over their wedding, 'and we'll be putting in what we can as well' he said looking at Cassie to see if he was saying anything wrong. She wasn't nodding at him or anything but she didn't look like he'd completely put his foot in his mouth so he decided he can't have gone too far wrong.

'Anyway Romilda' he said, having a spur of talking control of the situation and hoping he would be Cassie's knight in shining armour 'It was lovely to see you, thanks for stopping by.' He stood up and walked over to the fireplace where he took the pot of floo powder down from the mantle piece and held it out to her. 'I'm afraid we've got a lot to do today though so we can't chat anymore. I'm sure we'll see you soon though.' Whilst he was saying this, Cassie had managed to prompt her mum to stand up by lifting her elbow upwards and she had led her rather stunned mum over the fireplace. Romilda didn't seem to fully realise what was happening before she'd already taken the floo powder, through it into the fire and was stepping into it saying her address. She looked like she'd just regained her voice as the floo network whisked her away.

'I didn't expect her to just comply so easily' said Brian amazed.

'I may have confunded her a little when you decided to take your stand' said Cassie with a wink and he saw she had her wand in her hand once more.

'I love you' he said with a big smile before he lifted her up and spun her round in the room. 'Even if your mum does want to take over our wedding!'

'I love you too' said Cassie with a giggle, she liked it when Brian made her feel like a little girl again when he'd pick her up like that. 'At least we've only got one meddling mother to deal with though!'


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

Brian had insisted when he'd moved in with Cassie that they got a phone line set up. It wasn't something Cassie had ever bothered with as she'd been given a mobile phone by the hospital for work so Brian always used that to phone her since they'd started seeing each other and the wizards didn't seem to even know how to use phones according to Cassie. Brian was starting to regret his insistence now though, as he received yet another phone call from his mum when he had only just got in from a double shift at the hospital.

'I really can't talk about wedding stuff now mum' he said, as his stomach rumbled telling him he needed to eat and his eyes closing were telling him he needed to sleep. 'I've just done a double shift and I'm exhausted.'

'Well I'll come round on Sunday she said. 'We'll be in the area anyway so we'll stop by for a cup of tea and we can have a chat about things then.'

'Ok' he'd said, without really taking in what she'd said, his only thoughts were to get her off the phone so he could collapse in bed.

'Alright, see you then' she trilled before the phone line went dead.

Brian had crawled into bed after that and completely forgotten the phone call as the memory of it merged with his dreams almost immediately.

Sunday had arrived and Brian and Cassie were both not working that day and they'd decided they were going to make a start on planning things for the wedding, if only to stop their respective mothers nagging about it, so they sat at the kitchen table ready to plan.

'I always thought I'd get married in a church' said Brian as they looked at a list of things you should do when planning a wedding and top of the list was booking the church or registrar. 'But I think I'd find it a bit strange marrying a witch in a church' he said 'given how they haven't taken kindly to witchcraft in the past.'

'That was before the secrecy act though' said Cassie, remembering learning about the witch trials in her History of Magic lessons with Professor Binns, a ghost who had kept teaching even after he'd died, at Hogwarts. 'They don't even think we exist at all nowadays.'

'Still' he said, 'I think I'd rather not.'

'What are the other choices then?' asked Cassie, who didn't really know anything about how muggles get married since she'd never been to a muggle wedding or known anyone who'd had one.

'Well we have to get married by a registrar' he said 'but that can either be at the register office or at somewhere they've said you're allowed to get married at' explained Brian.

'I think I'd like to have the Ministry Officiator there too to marry us' she said 'to make sure it's official in the wizarding world. I'd hate to think we'd got married and then find that none of the magical community considered us married.'

'I'm not sure if we'd be allowed but we can find out' he said. 'This is already more complicated than this list and the list is long enough' he said pointing at the wedding planning to do list they were using. 'We're only on the first thing on the list!'

'We'll ask and find out' said Cassie 'And if not then we'll do another ceremony the next day with just us or something, it's not a problem.'

She wrote down in the notebook she'd bought for the planning a reminder to ask the registrar about that.

'Right, what's the next thing on the list?' asked Brian as he started peering at it as well. Just as they were looking, the doorbell rang. They looked at each other with surprise. 'Were you expecting anyone?' he asked Cassie.

'No-one I know tends to use the doorbell' said Cassie. 'What about you?'

Brian had a sudden flashback of memory. 'Oh no' he said. 'I thought that was a dream!' He got up and started heading for the door.

'Who is it?' asked Cassie following him along the hallway.

'Mum' said Brian as he opened the door, half in answer to Cassie and half in greeting to his mum.

'Brian sweetheart' said Martha, giving Brian a hug and kissing him on the cheek. 'Lovely to see you.' Martha stepped over the threshold and took Cassie in a hug as well 'and Cassandra, you're looking well' she said as she kissed Cassie on the cheek too.

'Martha' said Cassie, a little overwhelmed at an unexpected visitor. 'You look very well too' she said, though she didn't seem to look any different to usual.

'Oh thank you!' said Martha as she took off her coat 'It's probably because I had my hair done yesterday.' She plumped her hair up with her hands making a big show of it.

Cassie took Martha's coat and hung it up for her while Brian led her through to the living room. Cassie had a take a moment to steel herself before heading into the living room too.

'What a lovely unexpected surprise Martha' Cassie said.

'Unexpected?' replied Martha. 'We arranged it on the phone' she said looking to Brian.

'Sorry mum' he said. 'I'd completely forgotten. I was exhausted when you'd called and I went straight to bed afterwards.'

'I've told you Brian' she said 'you should keep a pen and paper next to the phone and write things down that are important.'

As Cassie stood just inside the doorway, working out if she should offer tea first or go and get a chair first, she noticed that she'd left a copy of the Daily Prophet on the floor next to the sofa. Her heart starting pounding so hard she could feel it thumping in her chest as she panicking thinking she'd ruined things already. This was exactly why she didn't want unexpected guests.

'Would you like some tea Martha?' she asked, trying to keep her voice sounding as calm as possible.

'Oh yes please Cassie' said Martha. 'Milk and two sugars please.'

Cassie moved as fast as she could round the side of the sofa, scooped the paper up off the floor and keeping herself between Martha and the paper headed through the door which led straight into the kitchen. She breathed a sigh of relief as the door swung closed behind her and she stuffed the paper into the back of the cupboard which they kept the plates in. She then remembered why she was in the kitchen and set about making the tea.

When she came back into the room carrying the tray with the tea pot, three mugs, the milk carton and the sugar packet, she saw that Brian had already fetched a chair and was sat in it himself, leaving the much more comfortable sofa seat for Cassie. Cassie rarely commented on these little gestures by Brian but she appreciated every single one of them.

After Cassie had set the tea down and everyone had their mugs of tea just how they wanted them, Martha revealed why she was there.

'I'm glad you're both here' she said. 'It's much easier to talk about these things all together.'

'What things?' asked Brian.

'The wedding of course Brian' said Martha with a little laugh, presumably at how silly it was for him not to know what it would be about.

'Of course' said Cassie smiling at Martha.

'Well, after the service this morning I had a chat with Reverend Parsons and he's got a few dates in June still available' said Martha. 'I wrote them down for you and I told him I'd let him know by next week.' She handed Cassie the piece of paper where she had written down the dates and Cassie took them without saying anything with her mouth slightly open.

Brian couldn't believe what he was seeing; they had only just started talking about this mere moments before his mum had arrived and here she was starting the ball rolling on things they didn't even want.

'Stop mum' said Brian 'What are you doing?'

'Well I thought I'd help out a bit' she said, seeming slightly affronted at even being asked this. 'I know you don't go to Sunday service anymore so I thought it'd be easiest if I had a chat for you and then you can pick a date and start booking things. You haven't got long you know.'

'We've got plenty of time' said Brian 'it's only just November and we're not wanting to get married till June.'

'That's no time at all!' exclaimed Martha. 'All the best places will already be booked up you know, it's going to be really difficult to find things that are right even if you were booking right now, you can't hang about! Reverend Parsons said he's going to hold those dates for you for a week but he's got plenty of couples asking so they're all going to be taken very soon, we're lucky he's a personal friend of mine or he probably wouldn't have done that for us, you need to make these decisions immediately.'

Brian couldn't help but think that his mum was making planning a wedding sound like launching a war and this certainly wasn't the way he wanted to do things. With the work he and Cassie did along with the other things they were dealing with, largely of Brian learning so much about Cassie's world and having to keep everything secret from his family, he wanted the wedding planning to be simple and easy and he was pretty sure that's how Cassie wanted it too otherwise they'd have been talking about it before today.

'We're not going to get married at church' said Brian.

'You're not going to get married at St John's?' asked Martha astounded. 'But that's the church you've been going to since you were a little boy, you were baptised there' she exclaimed. 'Oh of course' she then said with a smile 'it's the bride's church that you're supposed to get married at isn't it. So which church is that Cassandra, is it close by?'

'Erm' said Cassie, looking quickly at Brian for help 'I don't have a church'

'We're not getting married in a church at all mum' said Brian quickly, trying to save Cassie from the line of fire.

'Not getting married in a ch-' Martha seemed to be having trouble comprehending this new information. 'But you have to' she said, clearly unable to grasp what she'd been told.

'No mum' said Brian. 'We're going to get married by a registrar. I haven't been to church in donkey's years and Cassie isn't religious either so it'd feel strange to get married in a church.'

Martha turned to Cassie in shock 'Not religious?' she asked, as though she hadn't quite understood the meaning.

'Sorry Martha' said Cassie 'I don't think I've ever been to church I'm afraid. It wasn't really something my parents ever showed any interest in.'

'What she means' interjected Brian, worried that Cassie's phrasing would upset her further 'is that her parents never took her to church as they weren't brought up that way either.' He continued before his mum could get a grasp on what she wanted to say in response. 'So we're going to get married in a way that we're both comfortable with and that's by a registrar.'

Martha opened and closed her mouth a few times and Brian couldn't help but let the corners of his mouth turn up slightly as she looked a little like a goldfish. She then seemed to physically gather herself as she shook her head and a little of her upper body and then composed a smile on her face. 'Of course Brian' she said with the smile not faltering. 'I'll leave those dates with you in case you change your mind though.'

'Right' said Brian, knowing that this was a very small concession to make and in no way meant that they would change their minds.

Martha took her mug of tea and drank deeply from it. Cassie and Brian instinctively drank from their own mugs but in a matter of only about a minute, Martha had completely drained her mug and she set it back on the table. Brian was amused when he realised that she had just downed her tea in the way someone would down an alcoholic drink when they're trying to use it to move on from something bad that had just happened; tea was apparently the whisky shot of middle England housewives.

'Your father and I have been talking about things' said Martha, speaking now as though the previous conversation hadn't happened. 'And we know you don't earn a lot with your nursing.' She was addressing Brian for this part of the conversation and Cassie started to feel that she was invisible. 'I don't know if Cassandra's parents are offering to pay for anything but your father and I would like to give you some money to help.'

'That's very generous of you' said Brian surprised by this offer.

'You're our only child so and we've always wanted to see you married and you can't take care of your wife very well if you've spent all your money on marrying her' she said. This made Cassie almost burst out with laughter. Why did Brian need to look after her? She had a job, in fact she had two, very good jobs, where she was even earning both muggle and wizard money. She'd lived alone before Brian moved in just a few weeks ago so why would she need looking after? She realised that since the conversation was being held as though she wasn't there that it was probably easiest if she didn't say anything and made a note to ask Brian about it later, managing to hold in the laugh she had wanting to burst out.

'That's very kind of you, thanks mum, and say thanks to dad for me too please' said Brian, knowing Cassie must be biting her tongue about that last comment and he'd never explained to her how traditional his parents are and how they don't really understand the concept of, in their words, a woman going out to do a man's job when they should be taking care of her husband and the house. An idea that was very outdated in today's society but one that his parents and many like them hadn't let go of.

'There's a few friends we'd like to invite of course, but I'll give you the list of family addresses for sending invites and all that later, I'm sure you've got plenty of things to organise first.' Martha said all this very quickly, brushing over the mention of inviting their friends as quickly as possible and she was already standing up as well now. 'Since it seems you weren't expecting me after all then I shan't keep you' she said, 'I don't want to intrude, especially when you've got so much to talk about, so I'll head off now.' She'd already got to the living room door by that point and was heading out into the hallway to get her coat. Brian and Cassie shared a surprised look and followed after her.

'You're welcome to stay longer' said Brian, feeling bad that his mum wasn't feeling welcome, but actually feeling glad she was going to let them have some peace.

'No no' she said 'I've got to go and pick up some potatoes for the roast dinner anyway. You know your dad doesn't think it's Sunday unless he's had his roast dinner.' Brian helped her into her coat and she kissed both of them on the cheek.

'It was lovely to see you again Martha' said Cassie.

'You too Cassandra' said Martha, and with that she was out the door and down the path.

Brian closed the front door after they'd both waved her off and when they looked at each other and just burst out laughing with sheer relief.

'What was that about you taking care of me?' asked Cassie.

'Oh just her old fashioned nonsense' said Brian. 'In her world, the women stay home and cook and clean all day while the man goes out in a bowler hat with a briefcase and earns the money.'

'_Just_ a bowler hat?' asked Cassie with a smirk and they laughed again.

'You know' said Brian as they went back into the kitchen to carry on where they'd left off. 'I get the feeling that if we didn't do any planning at all for this wedding, it'd still happen, planned by both our mothers!'

'And they probably wouldn't even notice if we were there or not' said Cassie smiling.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

Hannah was looking at the noticeboard in the Hufflepuff common room where the sign had been posted about try-outs for the Inter-School Duelling Team and once again looked at where she had written her name on the list. She had finally given in to her friends who had been trying to persuade her to try out but mostly because she didn't think she would manage to make the team in any case. There were five other Hufflepuff names on the list, all people in her year or the year above which was the oldest year of Hogwarts students.

She re-read the heading for what must have been at least the thirtieth time since the notice had been posted, but this was the first day when she was reading the date for the try-outs that it was today's date.

She hadn't realised how nervous she was going to feel about it, after all she wasn't expecting to actually succeed in making the team. She had been brushing up on her jinxes and hexes and also her counter-curses the night before though as she couldn't help but give it her best try.

'Saturday the 10th of November at eleven o'clock in the morning in the Great Hall' the notice read. She checked the time again, it was 1 minute later than the last time she had checked and there was still about two hours to go. She'd agreed to meet Maggie Silv and Dana who are all friends of hers from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, who were also trying out, in the Great Hall at about nine o'clock for breakfast so she crawled along the passageway and out of the barrel into the corridor where the entrance to the kitchens was. She could smell breakfast already and normally that would make her so hungry she'd rush to the great hall but today it just made her feel slightly queasy instead.

She arrived at the Great Hall to see her friends already in there, sat at the Ravenclaw table. She sat down next to them and grabbed some toast thinking it was probably all she could manage with all the nerves.

'Hiya' Hannah said.

'Hi Han'

'Hi'

'Morning' came back the responses. Everyone seemed to be suffering from nerves but they could hear a lot of laughter coming from the Slytherin table. As much as people sat with their friends on various house tables, the Slytherins only ever seemed to sit on the Slytherin table, although occasionally someone who was friends with one of them would be sat on their table with them too, they never seemed to spread out in the Great Hall themselves. So when the laughter peeled out around the room from that table, Hannah knew it was all the Slytherins who were laughing and she couldn't help but feel they must be laughing at her for thinking she could try out for something like this. Representing the whole of Hogwarts in a five student team, out of everyone at the school it was silly for her to think that she could be one of the five that would be chosen.

When she'd mentioned it in her own common room, her fellow classmates there had reminded her that the Hogwarts Champion for the Triwizard Cup both times it had happened since they brought it back in 1994 were both Hufflepuffs and Cedric Diggory had even managed to win it, so they absolutely had to have at least one Hufflepuff on the team for this new Inter-School Duelling Competition. Hannah had managed to resist reminding them that Diggory had died for winning the Triwizard cup that year as she didn't want to quell their enthusiasm.

The girls ate their breakfast in almost complete silence with just the occasional small talk about essays they had due, none of them mentioned the try outs. They went their separate ways back to their common rooms after they had finished, Maggie, Silv and Dana heading up to the two towers where their common rooms are and Hannah heading back down to the kitchens corridor to her own cosy common room. She headed back to her four-poster bed in her dormitory and had another look over her books before she decided at ten to eleven that it was time to stop revising and head for her try out. As she arrived in the communal area of the common room she saw Dale Ponton, Kayleigh Keller, Hazel Nokes and Terry Tooley who were all on the list as well, surrounded by people wishing them luck. As she came down the stairs into the room as well, some people started applauding and this did nothing to help her nerves.

Hannah walked up to Kayleigh and asked her 'Isn't Morty Morrison going to be coming too?'

'We're just waiting for him' said Kayleigh, 'we didn't want to rush anyone before they were ready. He needs to be here soon though or we're going to need to head up there.'

'I'll go and check for him' said Dale and he disappeared through the door that led to the boys dormitories. He reappeared about a minute later with a flustered looking sandy-haired boy who Hannah recognised as being Morty from the year above her.

'We're all here' said Terry Tooley loudly. 'Has everyone got their wands?' he asked and Hannah along with the other four students replied 'Yes' and some even waved their wands excitedly. 'Let's go then!'

They left the common room as a group with cheering and whooping behind them as the whole of Hufflepuff House was hoping that as many of them as possible would be chosen to represent Hogwarts.

When they arrived at the Great Hall it looked very different to how Hannah had seen it only two hours ago for breakfast and it now looked more like it had when they had taken their O.W.L. practical test for Defence Against the Dark Arts with the four long house tables missing from the room and a judging desk at the far end of it.

Professor McGonagall, the headmistress, was at the judging desk and Hannah was relieved to see she was smiling.

'Welcome students' said Professor McGonagall as she rose from the seat she was in. 'This is an important day for Hogwarts as we choose the five students who will form the team that will represent Hogwarts in the first Inter-School Duelling competition.' There was a small ripple of a applause from the students and the other teachers who were stood at the side of the room as well. 'Many people have been working very hard, from the schools involved and also from each country's Ministry of Magic to organise this competition and the students who will be chosen today to compete in it will be a part of Hogwarts history forever.' She then added, less formally 'Of course we'd like that history to say that we won please students!' They all laughed and Hannah felt some of the nerves leave her as she chuckled. 'I'm sure you're wondering how you're going to be selected this morning so I will explain.' All of the residual laughter and the few murmurs stopped immediately as this was the information they were all waiting for. 'You will not be duelling each other this morning' she said, and the students looked at each other a little confused 'but you will instead be duelling the teachers here.' Professor McGonagall gestured to the teachers stood in the room and Hannah suddenly felt it was completely hopeless now, there was no way she could beat a teacher at duelling. 'They will be assessing you based on your performance against them. There will then be a short break when refreshments will be available and afterwards we will announce which students are short-listed for selection.' A murmur broke out amongst the students again and Hannah could hear some whispering near her.

'How many do you think they'll shortlist?'

'Nicholas Blair is bound to get shortlisted don't you think?'

'I'm so nervous I think I might puke!'

Hannah didn't say anything though, she was trying to focus on what was ahead. A loud cough rang around the room then and Hannah thought Professor McGonagall must have magically amplified it as it was too loud for a normal cough. Everyone fell silent and waiting for her to continue speaking.

'You will wait in this corner' she said gesturing to the corner to the right of the doorway. You will be called in alphabetical order by one of the teachers. You will be asked to carry out a short duel with them and afterwards you must wait in this corner.' She gestured to the corner to the left of the doorway. 'There is to be no discussion by the students who have completed their duel of what was involved so as to provide no advantage for those students who have not yet been called for theirs.' The students looked around at each other and Hannah saw some students whose surname started later on in the alphabet looking disappointed. 'It should go without saying but I shall say it anyway, that the Unforgivable Curses are of course very strictly banned, but also any spells which are deemed particularly violent or which we feel endanger anyone's life are also banned and any student casting such a spell will be severely reprimanded. Are there any questions?'

Hannah looked around and one girl who she didn't know put her hand up tentatively.

'Yes Miss Thompson' said Professor McGonagall.

'How many students will be shortlisted?' she asked.

'A perfectly valid question, thank you' replied Professor McGonagall. 'Approximately ten students will be shortlisted.'

Hannah looked around at the students and tried to do a quick headcount. It was difficult when she couldn't quite see everybody but she already knew there were six Hufflepuffs, whom she was stood with at the moment, she had spotted her two friends from Ravenclaw who were stood with seven other Ravenclaws and it looked like every student from the sixth and seventh years from Gryffindor, including her friend Dana, and Slytherin had turned up which was about twenty from each house. That meant there were a little over fifty of them and only ten would be shortlisted; Hannah was pretty confident from those odds that she wasn't going to be in the shortlisted ten but she was going to try her best nonetheless, she just wouldn't be getting her hopes up.

'Any further questions?' asked Professor McGonagall and no-one else raised their hand. 'Very well, please gather in the starting corner and come forward when your name is called to the teacher who called it.

They all shuffled over to the corner and Hannah knew she would be one of the first to be called and she was glad that she would be getting it over and done with quickly.

'Anderson, Gary' called Professor Kettleburn and Gary walked over to Professor Kettleburn with everyone watching.

'Blair, Nicholas' called Professor Sylvain as Gary was still walking over

'Brownlow, Bertha' called Professor Wilhelm and suddenly Hannah heard her own name.

'Crescent, Hannah' called Professor Longbottom. Her friends squeezed her hand quickly and said 'Good luck!' to her. 'You too' she replied and she walked over to the Herbology teacher.

'Good morning Hannah' said Professor Longbottom. 'Now don't be nervous' he said with a smile. Hannah couldn't possibly understand how she was not meant to be nervous when she was going to duel not only one of the teachers but one who had famously been a crucial fighter in the Great Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, and he was still only a student at the time! Of all the teachers to have to duel against, why did it have to be the famous fighter?

'Yes sir' was all she managed in reply though.

'I'm not going to do everything I can to beat you' he said 'I'm trying to assess you, so don't be scared or worried, just do your best.' He smiled warmly at Hannah and she started to feel a little less scared now. She had always liked Professor Longbottom and Hufflepuff House in general seemed to enjoy his subject with a lot of varied and interesting plants still resident in their common room from when the previous Herbology teach, Professor Sprout, had been the Head of Hufflepuff House. That was Professor Strixia Wilhelm now of course, the Muggle Studies teacher.

'Firstly we will take up our duelling stances' explained Professor Longbottom, 'and then I shall indicate when we can begin our duel by saying "En Guard". We may then begin to duel and I will indicate the duel is over by saying "End" and at the same time shooting red sparks into the air. Is that clear?'

This all made sense to Hannah so she nodded without saying a word.

'Alright' said Professor Longbottom, 'take out your wand then and take up position.' Hannah could only just hear him over the sounds of other students and teachers duelling nearby but she blocked them out.

'Yes sir' replied Hannah, trying to think through her opening strategy for the duel and then realising she'd be directing these spells at the teacher and fighting every urge in her not to cast offensive spells at the teacher. She held her wand out forwards and her other arm backwards to balance her, almost mirroring the pose Professor Longbottom was demonstrating opposite her.

'En guard!' he said and Hannah had barely let him finish speaking when she yelled her first spell.

'Stupefy!' she shouted as she ducked down at the same time. Professor Longbottom was using non-verbal magic which they had only just started learning this year so Hannah didn't know what the green jet of light which soared over her head represented but her stunning spell had hit Professor Longbottom in the knee and he stumbled backwards and fell to the floor as his leg seemed to no longer work. He shot another spell at her as he did though but Hannah was ready and had already cast 'Protego!' and a barrier had appeared in front of her which Professor Longbottom's spell rebounded from. As he cast this spell towards her which had bounced off her shield charm, she was already casting her next attack.

'Petrificus Totalis!' she yelled excitedly and aimed for the teacher sat on the ground unable to move. She hit him in the chest and he keeled over rigidly.

Hannah stepped over to Professor Longbottom, completely unscathed herself, said 'Sir? Does that mean the duel is over sir?' He couldn't respond of course because she had case a full body bind on him so he was completely paralysed.

Professor McGonagall came over to them with a wry smile and said 'I think you can say that you won Miss Crescent. You may go and join the other students who have finished' and she gestured to the corner where Gary Anderson and Nicholas Blair were already stood.

'Finite Incantatem' she heard Professor McGonagall casting as Hannah walked away and she glanced back to see Professor Longbottom getting to his feet again and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Madam Pomfrey, the school healer, was on standby and treating anyone who suffered an injury in the duelling and everyone who was waiting for their turn or who had already finished theirs watched those who were duelling with fascination. Hannah wasn't the only one who bested a teacher and some of the students had to be taken straight up to the hospital wing. One poor boy from Gryffindor had tried to set their opponent's wand on fire and instead set their own hair on fire! Hannah was glad she hadn't tried anything messy like fire, it was bad enough when a stunning spell went wrong.

After about an hour and a half, all the students had completed their duels and everyone was patched up. They were asked to move to the sides of the room and the four large house tables appeared, with lunch on them and the doors to the Great Hall opened and hungry students poured in ready to tuck in. The duelling team competitors all found themselves famished and filled their bellies with the toad-in-the-hole and mash potatoes with gravy that was on the tables and a short while later, Professor McGonagall was calling for silence and the Great Hall went quiet.

'The following students have been shortlisted from this morning's Duelling Team selection process:

Anderson, Gary

Brownlow, Bertha

Crescent, Hannah

Dawson, Dana

Gibbs, Margaret

Lancaster, Lawrence

Naylor, Nathaniel

Rockwood, Ross

Quinn, Silvestris

Thompson, Tara

Please meet in the entrance hall in ten minutes for the final round of selection.'

Hannah was really hoping she would hear her name after she'd managed to do so well against Professor Longbottom but she didn't know how other people had done or what they were really looking for so she was really nervous when the names started to be read out. The best thing was that her friends in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor had all made it too and there was another Hufflepuff on the shortlist too.

Hannah turned to look at Maggie and they were beaming at each other; even if they didn't make the final team now, they had done so well to be shortlisted to the final ten from around fifty students!

They rushed through their food, checking the time every twenty seconds or so, and arrived in the entrance hall five minutes early, along with nearly all the shortlisted students.

'I don't know why you're here' said Lawrence Lancaster, a boy from her year in Slytherin to Hannah. 'I didn't think they'd let Hufflepuffs compete in something like this, you just haven't got what it takes.'

Hannah raised her eyebrows at this, surprised that this was someone's genuine opinion but then she thought that he was probably just trying to psych her out. She saw Dana roll her eyes at Lawrence as well but the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin was legendary so that wasn't surprising. 'Hufflepuffs aren't restricted just to being the School Champion for the Triwizard Cup you know' she retorted. 'We can be the school champions for inter-school team events too, we're quite multi-talented.' Hannah was very proud of her house and she couldn't understand why anyone would disparage it but she was well aware that the Slytherins on the whole didn't respect the values that were common amongst Hufflepuffs. 'Have you ever worked in a team before?' she asked him, 'I don't think I've ever seen a Slytherin doing something for someone else and that's quite important in a team you know.'

'We don't need to be in a team to do well' replied Lawrence 'we're more than capable without our friends having to help us, unlike you lot.' He said the last words with a sneer and Hannah felt very glad she didn't regard people in other houses to her with the same derision as this boy did.

'We're competing to be in a team together, to work together to represent the school' she said.

'Yeah, you're meant to be working with us, not against us' chimed in Maggie. 'We're all trying to be on Team Hogwarts!'

'Not Team Slytherin' said Dana smiling.

There was a mutter of agreement from the other people waiting, even the other Slytherin who was there who Hannah had Care of Magical Creatures lessons with for O.W.L.s and she knew was quite a caring girl who loved magical creatures in their lessons.

The last student who was missing then rushed into the entrance hall, breathing a sigh of relief that they hadn't missed anything and Professor McGonagall then strode in almost immediately afterwards.

'Congratulations all of you' said Professor McGonagall 'you've done very well to be in the selected ten, but we are of course looking for the best five students for our Hogwarts team.'

Hannah looked around nervously at the other nine students and saw that most of them looked as nervous as she felt as well which made her a little more relaxed.

'For the final part of the selection for this important team' continued Professor McGonagall 'we will be testing your teamwork as well as your duelling skills. The duelling competition relies on good teamwork and so we will be splitting you into two team of five students each and you will be duelling each other.'

Oh no, thought Hannah, please don't put me on the opposite team to my friends, I really can't fling hexes and jinxes at them and I'll do terribly.

'The following students are in the Orange team' announced Professor McGonagall. 'Anderson, Gary; Brownlow, Bertha; Lancaster, Lawrence, Naylor, Nathaniel and Rockwood, Ross'

Those students all gathered to one side of Professor McGonagall.

'The rest of you are on the Purple team' she said. Hannah couldn't believe it when she looked round and that meant that the purple team was made up of herself, her three friends Maggie, Silv and Dana and Tara Thompson. She didn't know the people in the other team very well so she didn't mind that she needed to send offensive spells their way and all her friends were on her team. Even the fifth person was a girl she liked, the teams couldn't have been put together any better as far as she could see and she only hoped that her team would win and that would be the team which would be competing.

'There's someone from every house on each team' said Maggie quietly to her. 'Do you think they did that deliberately?' Hannah looked round and saw she was right, her team had herself from Hufflepuff, Maggie and Silv from Ravenclaw, Dana from Gryffindor and Tara Thompson from Slytherin. The other team had Nathaniel Naylor from Hufflepuff, Gary Anderson from Ravenclaw, Bertha Brownlow and Ross Rockwood from Gryffindor and Lawrence Lancaster from Slytherin.

'I don't think that's a coincidence' Hannah whispered back 'but I think that's how we managed to all be on the same team so I'm happy about it!'

Professor McGonagall waved her wands and their robes all turned the colour of the team they had been assigned. It felt very strange to Hannah to be dressed in a colour so predominantly that wasn't her house colours but she was glad it wasn't another house's colour at least.

'As five students duelling another five students is harder to prevent accidents occurring, we shall be carrying out this final stage on the quidditch pitch where no other students will be caught in the crossfire and we can hopefully limit the damage you all do.'

Hannah only noticed that Bertha Brownlow had put her hand up when Professor McGonagall turned to her.

'Yes Miss Brownlow?' asked Professor McGonagall

'Does this mean we'll be able to use broomsticks as well please Professor?' she asked.

Professor McGonagall chuckled a little at this question. 'I can understand why you'd be hoping we could Miss Brownlow, since you're the Gryffindor House Keeper but I'm afraid that broomsticks won't be featuring in the selection process.' The Gryffindor girl looked disappointed but not particularly surprised and Hannah breathed a sigh of relief, she wasn't very good on a broomstick so that would have been a problem for her.

They walked down to the quidditch pitch grouped into their two teams and they were trying to whisper tactics to each other but it was proving hard to walk along and talk to each other quiet enough to not be overheard by the other team but loud enough to be heard by each other so they all seemed to give up on that attempt and waited until they reached the quidditch pitch.

When they got there, they saw that the other teachers which they had been duelling against in the first stage of the try-outs, were already there and were seated in the raised quidditch stands. They sat high above the ground level since most of the action in quidditch happened that high up where the goals rings were. Hannah thought they were probably sat up there so that they got a good view but whilst being away from the action so that they wouldn't get hit by a stray spell and it suddenly struck her that there was going to be five students all trying to jinx and hex her shortly and she felt the nerves in her stomach again.

None of them had ever duelled against more than one opponent at a time so no-one had any prior experience of the tactics they would need but Hannah had a few ideas so when Professor McGonagall said they had five minutes to discuss things she was eager to talk to the rest of the team.

'The crucial thing is that we're a team' said Hannah 'so we've got to use that to our advantage and really work as a team rather than five separate people who happen to all be duelling against the same people.' There were some nods of agreement from the little huddle. 'So I think we should each try and take on a different role.'

'You mean like in quidditch, everyone doesn't try to score with the quaffle _and_ look for the snitch, people do specific jobs?' asked Tara.

'Exactly!' said Hannah, liking this girl more and more. 'We could do with at least one person covering defence, like putting up shields, trying to get counter-curses in and getting people back on their feet who have been hit by something.'

'I think we should have two people on that' said Silv 'if we only have one and that person gets taken out then we'll be in trouble.'

'Sounds good to me' said Maggie.

'Who fancies duelling defence then?' asked Hannah.

'I'm happy to' said Maggie, 'I've been trying to practise my shields and things.'

'Anyone else?' asked Hannah looking around.

'I'm pretty fresh on all that too' said Silv 'since we were practising together so I'll do it too.'

'Great!' said Hannah. 'So that leaves three of us on offence.'

'Like the chasers' said Tara and Hannah realised that Tara was on the Slytherin quidditch team so no wonder she kept relating it all to quidditch, that's about the only time you ever saw the Slytherins working together.

'If you like' said Hannah who didn't really follow quidditch but she knew enough to watch it at least. 'So any ideas for tactics?'

'We need to disable the other team members' said Dana. 'If they can't cast spells then they can't hurt us.'

'Right' said Hannah 'so we focus on stunning, paralysing, silencing, anything you can think of that'll stop them from stopping us.

'Sounds good!' said Tara.

'All agreed then?' asked Hannah.

Just as they were all saying yes, Professor McGonagall called them back over to the centre of the quidditch pitch again.

'Gather round' she said and they all crowded a little closer to her. 'Hopefully you have managed to decide on some form of tactics for your duel. The duel will last for five minutes or until all members of one team are disabled, whichever comes first.'

Five minutes thought Hannah, that's only the time they had spent on the planning, that felt like no time at all.

'Five minutes!' whispered Maggie to Hannah 'that's ages, we could get some really serious injuries in that long!' Hannah had to stop herself laughing when Maggie had said the opposite of what she was thinking but she realised before she did laugh that it would have sounded like she was laughing at serious injuries and she managed to stifle it to a smile. So, five minutes was likely to feel like a lot longer than that Maggie reckoned.

'I will indicate the start and the finish of the duel by sounding a horn' announced Professor McGonagall. 'Do not start until you hear this horn and stop duelling the moment you hear it at the end.'

Hannah hoped no-one knew a jinx that would make you deaf but then she realised that the other team-mates would probably be able to let them know that the duel had ended if that was the case and tried to stop worrying about everything.

'The Orange team will stand to the left of where I stand now, wherever you would like to position yourselves' continued Professor McGonagall. 'The Purple team will stand to the right of where I stand now, wherever you would like to position yourselves.' The students all moved over to the areas they'd been told about and Hannah saw that the Orange team were setting themselves up into a formation when they hadn't discussed anything like that at all. They seemed to naturally arrange themselves so that the three offence team members were stood forwards of the two defence ones and Hannah seemed to gravitate to the centre of the group which she was a bit scared about as this seemed to put her directly in the crosshairs of the Orange team.

'This isn't the actual tournament and these are your fellow students so please keep things clean' said Professor McGonagall. 'We don't want any serious injuries and anything of that nature will be severely punished.' She frowned at all the students to emphasise that point but Hannah was confident no-one wanted to cause anyone else any serious harm. 'Good luck everyone and I look forward to congratulating the successful students' she said with a smile this time before she then strode away from them and took up position in the quidditch spectator stands along with the other teachers.

All of the students had their wands in their hands and they were poised to start when the sound of the horn rang around the stadium.

Hannah dove to her left immediately as she had a feeling the Orange team were going to try and take out the easiest target in the middle first and she just managed to dodge a purple streak of light which whizzed past her right ear. As she was diving she was already casting her own spell, directed at the closest Orange team member which was heading straight for her. 'Silencio!' she yelled aiming for the student and she saw the spell hit them straight in the chest. She rolled over on the ground and took stock of where she was just in time to see another one of the Orange team sending a spell in her direction. She wasn't quick enough to dodge it this time but Silv came barging into her from the left and she must have had a shield up as the spell bounced right off it, saving both of them from whatever it had been.

Hannah was already on the counter-attack and she yelled 'Stupefy!' at the student who had just tried to attack her. The spell connected at the shoulder and the student fell to the floor. Hannah felt like jumping up and down and cheering but the duel was far from over. She was just getting to her feet when she felt something hit her left arm and it suddenly felt like it was on fire. She looked down to see that boils were appearing on her hands and she knew the same must be happening all up her arm as well. It was hurting quite a bit but that wasn't her wand hand so she wasn't going to let it stop her.

Hannah looked around to see that the student she had silenced earlier was still casting spells and she realised he'd obviously managed to learn how to do non-verbal magic since he was in the year above her, but hopefully his spells weren't as potent for it.

Hannah caught a shape moving towards her out of her peripheral vision and swung round to the right already shouting 'Flipendo!' and she saw Lawrence Lancaster go flying backwards as her spell connected with his stomach.

She spotted Nathaniel Naylor standing over Dana seemingly casting the tickling hex as she was lying on the ground squirming about and laughing uncontrollably.

Hannah took aim and yelled 'Mimble Wimble!' at Nathaniel and he stopped casting the hex immediately as his tongue tied itself into a perfect knot. Nathaniel clasped his hands over his mouth, nearly dropping his wand and Hannah finished the job by casting 'Petrificus Totalis!' and he fell to the floor completely frozen.

Hannah looked to her right and saw Maggie unfreezing Dana and she knew that working as a team had been the right strategy as she saw three of the other team now had been completely immobilised.

Hannah and Tara descended on one of the two remaining members of the Orange team and it was Lawrence Lancaster again. He cast a spell which came shooting towards them at the same time that they both fired spells off at him. As the spell got closer to them Hannah could see that there was a dozen roped flying through the air towards them and before she could try and push her out of the way, Tara was hit by the spell and the ropes wound tightly around her. Lawrence was hit by both of the spells they had sent at him though and he was simultaneously hit by a slug vomiting spell and a dancing feet spell, meaning he started dancing around on the grass uncontrollably, his legs flailing everywhere with slugs flying out from his mouth at the same time.

Suddenly everyone stopped what they were doing as the sound of the horn filled the air in the stadium again. Hannah looked around to properly take stock of what had happened. She saw that all the members of the Orange team had been taken out somehow with two of them lying on the floor, one unconscious and one paralysed, Lawrence Lancaster was still dancing crazily and in the slug vomiting he had also dropped his wand and he had no way to retrieve it now until the dancing stopped, another was stood upright but completely frozen in place and another was wrapped in ropes just like Tara. The Purple team however was mostly in tact; Hannah's own arm was angry with so many boils that you couldn't see anything but them now and Tara was wrapped in the ropes which Lawrence Lancaster had just fired at her but everyone else seemed to be in perfect condition. Hannah didn't think it had been five minutes yet, although time did seem to slow down amidst the fighting so she surmised that the duel had been stopped because they had incapacitated the Orange team and she felt a real swell of pride for her team.

'Thank you everyone' said Professor McGonagall as she strode out to the middle of the pitch with Madam Pomprey hurrying along behind her looking anxiously at the students. 'Finite Incantatem!' said Professor McGonagall loudly, waving her wand towards all of the students. The ropes disappeared, the students were released from the spells affecting them and the unconscious boy woke up. Lawrence was finally able to stop dancing and there didn't seem to be any more slugs coming up as he fell to his hands and knees on the floor. The boils were still covering Hannah's arm and hand though and the pain seemed to be getting worse but Madam Pomprey came straight over to her before she saw to any other students and applied a potion which went on like a cooling lotion and made the boils visibly start to shrink.

'That was very well done' said Professor McGonagall to everyone once they were all on their feet. 'We were very impressed watching everyone and we are going to have to discuss what we have seen over both stages today before we can decide on which five students we think will be the best ones to represent Hogwarts in this very special tournament.'

Hannah's boils had already shrunk to the size of blisters and she thanked Madam Pomprey who left her with strict instructions to visit the hospital wing later that day for her to examine Hannah again.

'You will find out who has been successful in making the team when the results are announced in the Great Hall after your evening meal tonight' said Professor McGonagall. They were going to announce who had made the team to the whole school at the same time, it was going to be embarrassing no matter what the result was thought Hannah, but if some of her group of friends made it into the team and some didn't then that was going to be horrible for them having everyone watching them when they find out. Hannah could only hope that they would either all get in or they all wouldn't so that whatever happened they would be doing it all together.

'It's going to be a long afternoon' said Silv to Hannah and Maggie as she was stood just behind them.

It was a long afternoon but eventually it was time to go to the Great Hall for dinner. The prefects were informing people that they had to sit at their own house table tonight which automatically made the whole meal seem very formal.

Hannah sat with the other Hufflepuffs from her year and the year above who were all still talking about the try-outs today with four of the Hufflepuffs who tried out finding out at the end of the first stage that they hadn't been picked for the team and just Hannah and Nathaniel Naylor who was from the year above Hannah who were anxiously waiting to find out if they had been chosen.

Hannah didn't eat much of the food when it appeared on the tables, despite being a much better spread than usual, not as grand as the first day feast but more than the usual evening meal entailed, and she noticed that Nathaniel also hadn't eaten much, pushing things around his plate a lot.

The puddings arrived after that and Hannah's favourite, apple crumble, was one of the dishes which had appeared and she managed to eat a few bites of that at least. Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the meal was over and Professor McGonagall drew the attention of the hall with a simple throat-clearing cough.

'I believe we have all finished eating this lovely meal now' she said 'and there are some students who are rather anxious to know the results from the day's selection process.' There was some quiet murmuring around the hall which quickly stopped when Professor McGonagall continued.

'Once I have finished calling the names of the students who have been selected to form the Hogwarts team in the First Inter-School Duelling Competition, I would ask that those students come and see me at the front of the hall.' The tension was getting too much for Hannah and she just needed to know now, she willed McGonagall to just tell everyone the names.

'Without further ado' continued Professor McGonagall 'these are the successful students who will be representing Hogwarts: Crescent, Hannah; Dawson, Dana; Gibbs, Margaret; Lancaster, Lawrence and Quinn, Silvestris.' Hannah's jaw dropped with disbelief and around her the other Hufflepuffs were patting her on the back and saying their congratulations. Not only had she been selected for the team but all of her friends had been too, it was the very best she could have hoped for. She thought through the announcement again and realised that Lawrence Lancaster was the fifth member of the team. Hannah didn't really like him after he'd been mean about Hufflepuff to her earlier in the day but she decided that he must be good for him to have been selected, especially if he was selected despite ending the duel dancing uncontrollably and vomiting slugs, although he had been the last of his team standing thought Hannah.

Maggie came rushing over to Hannah at the table and hugged her from behind as she was sat on the bench there.

'We did it!' said Maggie delightedly.

'I can't believe it' said Hannah, saying exactly what was going round and round in her head. 'All of us!' She extricated herself from the bench and all the people who were congratulating her and she went over to Nathaniel Naylor. 'I'm really sorry we didn't both get in the team' she said.

'I wasn't expecting to' said Nathaniel, 'your team thrashed us in that final round, I knew you'd get in the team. I'm just glad there's a Hufflepuff representing us.' Nathaniel smiled what seemed to be a genuine smile at Hannah and she felt relieved that he didn't seem to bear a grudge. 'Anyway, I don't have to worry about getting blown up by someone from Durmstrang anymore now at least!' he said with a chuckle and Hannah laughed with him but that didn't make her feel like laughing, she didn't feel quite so triumphant at that thought.

The five of them came from the four house tables in the Great Hall; Hannah noted that just like the teams they had split them into on the quidditch pitch, there was a student from every house in the team and she wondered if that was deliberate. They grouped together in front of the staff table at the far end of the Great Hall in front of where McGonagall was sharing a joke with Professor Wilhelm next to her before she turned to address them all.

'The first round of the competition will be held at Beauxbatons School in France.' The five students let out a collective gasp and they looked round at each other with surprised smiles. Professor McGonagall waved her wand and a stack of letters appeared on the table just in front of them with their names on them. 'I will need your parents to sign the permission papers in these letters and they need to be returned to be by the end of the month. If you don't return your permission papers by this time, your place on the team will be forfeit and another student from the selection process today will be chosen to replace to.' They nodded solemnly at Professor McGonagall and Hannah hoped that her parents wouldn't have any problem with her heading off to France to fight other wizards. 'Congratulations all of you' said McGonagall with a big smile now 'and I shall notify you when your first training session will be.' McGonagall then got up and left the Great Hall leaving them all to take their letters and absorb the news that they would be going to France and they would have to start training for it.

Hannah looked at her friends and thought to herself, what have they got me into this time.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

Cassie was rushing around the house, casting cleaning spells and levitating things back in their places as her mum was due to arrive any minute and she hadn't had any time recently to sort the place out. It was harder to keep everything in order since Brian had moved in with her and although she'd made some of the storage areas in the house a bit larger than they would be without magic, there was still a lot more things about the place and two of them now to mess it up as well. She'd just about finished and was hoping to get a couple of minutes to sit down when the flames in the fireplace turned green and rose up into the chimney breast and Romilda appeared and came walked out of the fire.

'Right on time mum' said Cassie, disappointed at her mum's good timekeeping.

'Thank you love' said Romilda. She gave Cassie a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. 'You're looking very well' she said as she gave Cassie an appraising look up and down 'except maybe you should do something with your hair.'

'Right' said Cassie smoothing it down with one hand. Her hair had always been a bit flyaway and rushing around the house in a mad attempt to clear it up didn't help that. Romilda sat herself down on the sofa and Cassie could see her looking around the room, probably to find something she could criticise.

'Is Brian not here?' Romilda asked.

'No, he's working' replied Cassie. 'We don't get days off together all that often really.'

'Oh that's unfortunate' said Romilda with a frown. 'Can he not change his hours so that he's working the same as you then love?'

'It doesn't really work like that mum' Cassie said trying not to roll her eyes since she'd explained this to her mum several times before. 'Shall I make tea?'

'Yes please love' said Romilda.

Cassie disappeared off into the kitchen, already muttering complaints about her mum under her breath as she made a pot of tea for both of them and brought everything through on a tray.

'Here you go' said Cassie as she set down the tray and she saw her mum now had a notebook on her lap and she knew this couldn't be good.

'I'll be mum' said Romilda, laughing at her own joke as she poured out the tea for them both.

Once they were sat there with their mugs of tea, Cassie started the ball rolling on what she knew would come eventually. 'So how are you mum?'

'I'm very well thank you love, and how are you? How is the planning coming?' Cassie knew it wouldn't take her long to get around to this subject and she hadn't been wrong.

'It's alright' said Cassie, reluctant to share the details but knowing that she would have to.

'What have you done so far?' asked Romilda more specifically.

'We thought we knew where we wanted to get married' said Cassie. 'There's a lovely little medieval house we really wanted to use called Wythenshawe Hall but it's closed to the public now.' She took a drink of tea before continuing because she'd been upset when they'd learnt that as she'd thought for a couple of years that she'd love to get married there. 'But I think we've managed to find somewhere else now.'

Romilda set down her tea and just looked at her and Cassie wasn't sure what she could possibly have said wrong. 'I assumed you'd be getting married at our house' she said eventually.

'What?' asked Cassie, amazed. There was no way she would want her mum to have so much control over the day that she would have if they held it there but she couldn't very well say that. 'We're having a muggle wedding mum, we can't have it at a wizarding house.'

'I thought you'd say that' replied Romilda, revealing that she obviously hadn't just assumed that they would be using her house like she had said. 'But we can make the whole place muggle-proof, we can do magic you know.' Romilda managed to make it sound like Cassie had just insulted her by saying that the house wasn't muggle safe but Cassie knew that was a ploy to get her to give in and it wouldn't work.

'That's exactly the problem' Cassie said. 'It's going to be hard enough keeping all the witches and wizards under control around the muggles all day as it is without having a magically controlled house to worry about as well. Sorry mum, but we won't be having the wedding at your house.'

Romilda put on her best affronted face but Cassie could tell it was all an act and she excused herself to use Cassie's facilities. Cassie was tempted to follow her in case she started poking around the house upstairs but she decided she was being a bit too paranoid then.

When Romilda returned, she sat back on the sofa, picked up the notepad Cassie had seen she was holding earlier and flipped it open.

'Well I prepared for you saying that' she said as she pretended she was holding back some tears; her mum had never been a particularly good actress thought Cassie. 'So I've been finding out about the muggle venues in the area for you.' Cassie did roll her eyes now.

'I already told you mum, I'm pretty sure we've found the venue we want to get married in now.'

'Well maybe that's one of the places I've found for you love' said Romilda smiling. 'What is it called?'

'It's somewhere close to us' Cassie said 'called The Saddleworth Hotel.' Romilda made a big show of running her pen down the page as she checked her list for the name and shook her head when she reached the end.

'No, that's not on my list' she said. 'How many people does it allow?'

'That doesn't really matter mum' said Cassie, getting a bit annoyed now. 'We only want a small wedding anyway.'

'No no no' said Romilda dismissively 'that won't do. If it's not going to be at home and it's not going to be somewhere magical, then it needs to be somewhere grand. Now I've found a list of places.' She handed the notebook to Cassie who reluctantly took it.

'Mum, half of these places aren't even anywhere near Manchester!' said Cassie getting really frustrated now.

'That doesn't matter does it?' asked Romilda sounding genuinely confused.

'Of course it matters mum' said Cassie feeling she really shouldn't have to spell these things out to her. 'It takes a long time for muggles to travel places, we can't just give them a portkey or put the venue on the floo network you know.'

'Oh, yes' said Romilda, who obviously hadn't considered the needs of the muggle guests for a moment in her rush to plan things for them. 'Well there are other places on there which are much closer' Romilda said defensively.

'Have you even found anything out about these places mum?' asked Cassie putting the list down. 'I'm pretty sure you can't even get married in Lyme Park or even use it for the reception or anything!'

'But it's a lovely place' said Romilda as though this would automatically make it available in that way. 'I'm sure it's much prettier than this Saddleway place you mentioned.'

'The Saddleworth Hotel mum' said Cassie, wondering if she was deliberately getting the name wrong or if she was deliberately paying so little attention to what she was saying. 'And it's a lovely place, I'm sure you'll like it when you see it.'

'Let's go and see it then' she said, getting up out of the sofa.

'What?' asked Cassie taken aback by this suggestion. 'No, we can't, we'd need an appointment.'

'You said it's a hotel' said Romilda matter of fact 'You don't need an appointment to go to a hotel.'

'You probably need a booking though and we can't just wander around the hotel when we're not guests there. No, we're not going to just go there now.'

'Well how can I know that it's a suitable venue otherwise?' asked Romilda who was even seeming annoyed at Cassie now though she couldn't fathom why she should be annoyed at her.

'Because I've seen it and I've said it's suitable' said Cassie. 'By trusting me and by respecting what I, what _we_ want on our wedding day.'

'You've never had a wedding day before Cassandra' said Romilda, with a slightly pompous air now. 'How could you possibly know what you want when you haven't experienced it before. You need my help or you'll do everything wrong.'

'You've never had a muggle wedding mum' said Cassie who realised she was raising her voice a little at her mum now. 'So I don't think you're qualified at all.'

Romilda looked like she was about to retort with something else then but she forcibly stopped herself, shook herself a little and sat back down on the sofa plastering a smile on her face.

'I think we just need to take a look at this Snaggleworth place together' she said very sweetly 'and I'm sure there won't be anything wrong with it that we can't tweak with a little spell or two.'

Cassie, having acquired her own stubbornness from her mum, recognised when she had taken a stand and wasn't going to shift and decided that them looking at the venue she had chosen together was the best compromise she was likely to get.

'Alright' said Cassie. 'I'll book an appointment and we'll go there together to have a look around.'

'Marvellous!' cheered Romilda and Cassie had a sinking feeling she had just agreed to something she shouldn't have.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

'Mum is coming round today' said Brian, reminding Cassie over breakfast. Cassie hadn't forgotten but she had been trying to put it out of her mind.

'You took her to the venue' said Cassie, 'so she's seen the place, _my_ mum has seen the place, they can't possibly have anymore more to add about the wedding can they?' This was more a hope than a genuine belief.

'I didn't think they'd both be so interested in vetting the venue before we booked it' said Brian, who had heard about Cassie's altercation with Romilda about the venue from her so when his own mum was suggesting venues he volunteered to take her round to the one they'd picked quite quickly. They'd taken them round separately so that they didn't need to worry about Romilda saying the wrong thing around Martha and her getting suspicious but they both seemed happy enough with where they'd chosen once they'd had the tour which had been a huge sigh of relief and they'd booked it before anyone changed their mind. Brian was pretty sure they were wearing out their welcome at the hotel when they turned up for a third tour of the place with Martha when they hadn't booked it yet but they seemed happy enough when he put down the deposit.

'Let's hope it's the last thing they think we need their approval for then' said Cassie. 'We've already had to increase the number of guests we booked for with the lists of people they both want us to invite.'

'I know' said Brian 'so much for the small wedding we were planning. I'd have put my foot down if it wasn't for the fact they're both helping to pay for it all.' Brian didn't earn as much as he would like nursing at the hospital; Cassie was essentially working two different jobs with her muggle job at the hospital and then collating and writing up her research on muggle medicine for the magical hospital, so thankfully she was earning quite a bit more, although that did sting Brian's pride a little. Nevertheless he wanted to pay for as much of the wedding as he possibly could but he couldn't stretch to the whole thing so with both of their mothers wanting to increase the guest list he was actually grateful for their help and if that was the only concession for that help then he was happy to make it. He had a feeling though, that at least with Romilda that it wasn't going to be the only concession. 'At least they didn't complain _too_ much about the fact we're having the wedding on a Friday.' They had found that not only were most Friday dates available but they were cheaper as well so had booked the wedding for Friday the sixth of June.

'We could have just eloped' said Cassie. 'We still can!'

'No' said Brian smiling 'I know you'd always regret not having your friends and family there'

'You're right' said Cassie with a little laugh. 'You do know me well!' and she gave him a little kiss.

It was about the middle of the morning when Martha arrived at the house. Neither Brian nor Cassie had been able to relax knowing that she was going to be turning up at some point that morning so it actually felt like a relief when the doorbell finally chimed.

'Would you like some tea Mum?' asked Brian after he'd welcomed her in and taken her coat for her.

'Actually I'd better not' said Martha, who left the statement hanging. Brian could have left her hanging there but he decided to play along.

'Why's that Mum?' he asked, feeling like she was scripting him.

'Because me and Cassandra will be heading out very soon' she said with a triumphant tone.

'We will?' asked Cassie, looking at Brian but he shrugged back at her as it was the first he'd heard of it.

'And not me?' asked Brian. Cassie and his mum had never really spent any time together without him there so for his mum to arrange that and keep it as a surprise was making him very apprehensive.

'Not for this I'm afraid' said Martha grinning, she looked like she was on the verge of even giggling.

'What are we doing Martha?' asked Cassie. She had been put in the position of either having to say she couldn't so whatever had been planned before knowing what it was and potentially saying no to something that she would have liked and upsetting her future mother-in-law, or not protesting that she was busy and therefore feeling obliged to carry out whatever was planned before knowing what it was. She had chosen the polite route and decided that maybe a day out with Martha would be a good day anyway, they could perhaps form a better bond and she might find Martha more supportive than her own mother for the wedding.

'I've booked us some appointments in town' said Martha, the grin, if anything getting bigger. 'It's very exciting!'

'Are you going to tell us what it is Mum?' asked Brian, who had seen how worried Cassie was looking and wanted to find out for her sake.

'We're going to go wedding dress shopping!' said Martha, the sentence almost bursting out of her. 'I've cleared out my day and I've made us appointments at the best shops in town. Before we go though' she said as she walked through to the living room and Brian noticed for the first time that she had a folder sticking out of her handbag 'I've got some pictures to show you so that we can start to get a good idea before we get there.' Cassie just had her mouth open as Martha walked past her into the front room and settled down on the sofa.

'I'm sorry' said Brian quietly to her in the hallway before they walked into the front room and Cassie took a seat next to Martha.

'Well you can't be here' said Martha as soon as Brian walked in. 'We can't talk about the dress in front of you!'

'We can't?' asked Cassie, confused. 'Why not?'

'It's bad luck dear!' said Martha looking astounded at Cassie. 'The groom can't see the bride before the wedding so he can't see the dress either.'

'It's bad luck to see pictures of dresses other people are wearing?' asked Cassie confused 'while I look through them to see what I want to wear?'

'You might see the perfect dress or say what you like and don't like' said Martha sounding horrified at Cassie's nonchalance 'and then he'd know what you're wearing!'

'But I don't know what I want to wear' said Cassie. 'I was thinking of probably having a purple one.'

Martha audibly gasped at this and then started coughing so much Cassie was getting worried about her. She finally managed to compose herself enough to speak again.

'You can't wear purple!' Martha declared and Cassie was quite taken aback by this.

'I can' she said simply. 'I particularly like purple.'

'Erm, Mum' said Brian from the doorway and Martha turned to look at him with more shock.

'You're still here!' she said with further outrage, seeming now to be unsure where to direct her consternation.

'Yeah' said Brian sheepishly. 'It's Cassie's dress you know, she can wear whatever she wants.'

'It's not a party dress' said Martha, chiding Brian now. 'It's her wedding dress! If she doesn't want to wear white then it should at least be cream or ivory.'

'I don't really like white' said Cassie. 'With my dark hair and pale skin it really washes me out, I prefer richer colours.'

Martha took a deep breath in and out with her eyes closed, then she took another deep breath in and out again before she then opened her eyes and spoke.

'We'll go to the dress shops' she said 'and you'll be able to see how lovely you look in the beautiful white dresses and I'm sure you'll change your mind.' Cassie went to reply but got cut off before she could. 'Now we'll look through these pictures I've found for you before we have to set off and we'll have a lovely time with you trying on the dresses and finding the right one.'

'I've alre-' started Cassie but Brian cut her off this time.

'That sounds great Mum' he said. 'You two can go and have a look to see if there's anything Cassie likes and if there isn't then she doesn't have to get any of those ones.' He looked at Cassie pleadingly and she gave in. She was going to say how she's got a lovely purple dress upstairs that she hasn't worn yet but it did seem like the easiest thing to do was just to humour Martha for the day and then she could just have the dress she wanted.

'So what kind of thing are you thinking of' asked the shop assistant to Cassie. Before she managed to reply though, Martha was already speaking for her.

'Well this is the first shop we're visiting' Martha said 'so we need to get an idea of what she likes and doesn't like yet so we really need to try a bit of everything.'

The shop assistant smiled at Martha and looked back to Cassie. 'So what kind of thing would you like to try first?' she asked.

'Well I was thinking of maybe something purple?' Cassie said. The assistant raised her eyebrows and Martha laughed a really fake laugh Cassie hadn't really heard from her before.

'Hahaha that's very funny isn't it' said Martha to the assistant. 'She's a real joker you know.' The assistant wasn't sure how to react now since Cassie wasn't laughing or indicating it was a joke in any way.

'Well, shall I bring out some of our most popular dresses and you can see what you think of them?' asked the assistant looking at Cassie but then turning to Martha as she seemed to already know that Martha would be doing the answering.

'That sounds like an excellent place to start' said Martha.

'Ok, let's go through to the changing room area and I'll bring through some dresses to see what you think.'

The assistant led them through to a large room with a corner which could be separated off with curtains and she disappeared back into the store.

'You shouldn't say things like that whilst we're here' said Martha in a stage whisper. 'They don't do purple wedding dresses so that's not what we're here looking for.'

'Right' said Cassie who determined from this that they weren't actually looking for a dress she liked at all, they were looking for a dress Martha liked and she wished she'd thought to bring her wand with her as she was sure she could cast a spell on the dresses or on Martha that would make them all look horrible on her.

The assistant came back through and back out again a few times, hooking more dresses onto the hooks high up on the wall each time she came in until there were about a dozen dresses hung up.

'So' said the assistant to Cassie, 'do any of them jump out at you?'

Cassie had a look along the line of dresses. A lot of them were covered up by the dresses hung up on top of them but she could see four or five of them, and they all looked about the same to her; they were all white or close to white, they all had sparkly bits on, though she did like the sparkly bits, and they all looked huge.

'They all seem a bit, well, a bit _big_' said Cassie, glad of a chance to actually state her own opinion for once.

'I always think they look big on the hangers too' said the assistant smiling 'but people usually feel different once they put them on. It's worth trying to see how you feel about it.'

'What about this one?' asked Martha pointing to one on the end which looked even bigger than the others.

'Shall we try that one on first?' asked the assistant to Cassie. 'Even if it's to rule it out, it all helps in working out what's right for you.'

'Ok' said Cassie, unconvinced.

The assistant helped her get into the dress in the changing rooms and with each dress having only one sample in stock then she had to be bulldog clipped at the back to make it fit right which wasn't quite the look Cassie was going for but of course she knew it wouldn't be like that if she got one for herself. The dress had so many layers of fabric she got a bit tangled up trying to get it on and she didn't think she'd have managed it if the assistant wasn't managing it all for her. Once she was in, the assistant told her to hang on whilst she popped out to grab a hoop as well. Cassie couldn't believe there was any need to add any more layers to the masses and masses of fabric already on the dress and she couldn't work out how you could manage to walk in it. When the assistant came back though, she got Cassie to put an underskirt on beneath the dress which had rigid hoops built in which moved the fabric away from her legs and walking suddenly seemed like it wouldn't be a problem at all. Cassie remembered what her own mum had said to her recently though and thought walking wasn't likely to be a problem if she got her way anyway as she'd be literally floating down the aisle.

The assistant pulled back the curtains and Cassie walked out into the middle of the room.

'Oooooh!' said Martha sounding very impressed.

Cassie was directed to stand on a little pedestal in front of the large full-length mirror and once she did she saw herself in the dress.

'You look magnificent!' said Martha delightedly.

Cassie wasn't sure what she looked like but magnificent was definitely not a word which fit the bill. She was about to say she looked like she'd had an enlargement charm cast on the dress but managed to stop herself.

'I look like a tiny doll in a dress made for a human being' was the best she could think of to describe it. 'You can't actually see me for the dress.'

'Nonsense' said Martha. 'You look like a proper bride!' She seemed to be swelling with pride at the sight for some reason but there was no way Cassie was going to humour her on this dress.

'Absolutely wrong' Cassie said 'in every way.'

'Ok' said the assistant cheerfully 'we can rule out the really big dresses then, we've made progress already!'

This continued through all the dresses the assistant had brought through for Cassie to try on; Martha cooed over all of them and Cassie felt like she was putting on someone else's clothes and felt an absolute fool in all of them.

'I think we need to go for something simpler' said the assistant.

'And purple?' asked Cassie hopefully but she saw Martha frowning at her for this comment.

'We do have bridesmaid dresses you can get in a huge range of colours' she said 'and they tend to be simpler than the bridal dresses.'

'Absolutely not' said Martha before Cassie was able to say a word. 'And I'm afraid we need to rush away as we have another appointment at another bridal shop that we need to get to.'

'Right' said the assistant, looking apologetically at Cassie. 'I'll write down the details of the one which you liked best.' This had been a gown which seemed to be made all of lace and hung quite simply and delicately without any pomp or fuss which Cassie had liked but it still didn't feel like _her_ dress.

The experience at the other two shops Martha had booked appointments at was much the same as in the first although Cassie was at least able to go into them saying what she had absolutely ruled out.

The more she got dressed up in white, cream or ivory dresses, the more alien the colour was feeling on her. She had never worn white before and she really felt she just didn't look like herself. In the final shop though, she saw something she liked.

'What's that one there?' Cassie asked as she saw just the edge of a gown that intrigued her on one of the racks when they were having a last look through the dresses before their appointment ended.

The lady in the shop took the dress off the rack and hung it up for Cassie and Martha to see. 'This one came in just a couple of weeks ago actually' said the lady. 'It's quite an unusual one for a wedding dress but we took a sample anyway just in case.'

'It's beautiful!' said Cassie staring at it.

The dress was golden, not the type of gold where the colour had just brushed the fabric but a much deeper, richer gold. The fabric looked like it was made of liquid and the cut of the dress would hug the figure as it slid down the body. There were sparkling jewels dotted over the dress which weren't noticeable until they caught the light and they twinkled like stars, popping out of the dress.

'Maybe you're the person we got it in stock for then' said the lady in the shop sounding slightly surprised. 'Shall we go and try it on?'

They went back to the changing room where Cassie had already tried on about half a dozen dresses and Cassie didn't need any help fighting through layers with this dress, it slid over her and dropped into place perfectly.

The back of the dress dipped low to the middle of her back and the front came high up to her neck. There were even matching gloves included which came down the arm but stopped in a point at the wrist. The fabric pooled at her feet creating a train of liquid gold and Cassie knew this was the dress for her before she even saw herself in the mirror.

When she did stand in front of the mirror she couldn't find any words to say other than simply 'Yes.'

Martha didn't look very happy about the choice but she seemed to take pride in the fact it was because of her that they had come to the shop and therefore the dress was found because of her.

Cassie was ready to take the details of the dress to be able to go home and talk over what the budget was with Brian when Martha interjected.

'Order it now Cassie' said Martha, her voice sounding soft now, which was different to how she had been all day. 'It's only six months until the wedding now, you need to get it ordered.'

'I can't Martha' said Cassie though she thought six months was ages to order a dress, Martha obviously didn't think it was. 'We haven't talked about what our budget is yet so I can't just order a dress before I talk to him.'

'You don't need to' said Martha. 'I'd like to buy your dress for you.'

It made sense to Cassie then why she had shown such a close interest in what dress she was going to have and why she had booked these appointments for the two of them together.

'I couldn't ask you to do that Martha!' said Cassie, unused to such generosity.

'You're not asking' said Martha smiling, 'I'm offering. I don't have a daughter, Brian is my only son so this is the only wedding I'm going to be a "mother of" at, and I'd love to do this for you for the day. Will you let me buy you your wedding dress?'

'That is so kind and so generous of you Martha' said Cassie gratefully. 'I'd love you to, thank you!' Cassie and Martha shared a big hug and Cassie forgave everything that Martha had done that had annoyed her that day.

The lady in the shop took Cassie's measurements and ordered the dress and Cassie left the shop feeling like she'd had a levitation charm cast on her and she was walking on air.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

Hannah and the rest of the Hogwarts Duelling Team had been practising one or two evenings a week for the last couple of months and it was finally going to be the moment of truth. This morning they would be leaving to go to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in France. They would be gone from Hogwarts for about two weeks with the duelling competition round happening on the weekend in the middle of that time.

Last night Hannah had packed up her trunk for the two weeks away, which included all her books and notes on duelling spells and she had visited the Owlery to say goodbye to Tilly whom she usually visited at least twice a week when she wasn't away delivery letters.

After she got back from breakfast and did a last check to make sure she had everything, she set off from the room she shared with the other Hufflepuff girls in her year saying 'Locomotor Trunk!' with a wave of her wand and her trunk rose up from the floor and hovered along in front of her. She headed down the stairs to the common room where she found that in the time she had been upstairs doing her last checks, they had decorated the common room. There were Hufflepuff banners hanging around the room along with Hogwarts banners and Hannah even saw there was a line of balloons hovering slightly wobbly with a letter on each spelling out her name.

As she entered the room, the students filling it cheered and there were chants of 'Hannah, Hannah' which Hannah really didn't feel she deserved as she hadn't actually competed yet so she might do terribly and they wouldn't want to be cheering her name then, but she was happy to get the support and it felt great!

Hannah sent her trunk through the common room entrance before she crawled through it herself and emerged from the barrel and was surprised to find that lots of the Hufflepuff students were coming out after her, wanting to see her off from the castle. She felt like she was already a champion as she walked along the corridors with her housemates cheering excitedly behind her and she understood better than she ever had before about the lure of the quidditch team when the whole house was behind you.

The entrance hall was already decorated for Christmas as it was the eighth of December today, with icicles hanging from all of the staircases and a large Christmas tree standing beneath the staircases in the middle of the stairwell, covered in hundreds of decorations and lights. There was already a crowd of students from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor and Hannah went up to her friends Maggie, Silv and Dana and hugged each one of them. They were all so excited it was all they could do not to jump up and down on the spot. Another door off the entrance hall opened then and the final member of the team, Lawrence Lancaster appeared with a crowd of Slytherins behind him. None of the group hugged him but they were working better with him recently after all the training so they greeted him with a smile. The atmosphere in the room was giddy as the whole school was behind the team and wanted Hogwarts to prevail with each house having a champion representing them, and in the case of Ravenclaw having two.

As they were all gathered then, Professor McGonagall, who was stood in the entrance hall with a group of teachers, cleared her throat and strode to the middle of the room, students moving out of her way and clearing a space for her without having to be told to.

'It is time for us to leave' announced Professor McGonagall. 'I'm sure you're all very curious to discover how we will be travelling!' she said with a sly smile. She waved her wand and all of the trunks of the five students rose and floated across the room in perfect formation. The large doors swung open and the trunks floated outside with Professor McGonagall following straight after them. Hannah and the rest of the team looked at each other excitedly before they hurried outside after her.

They gasped when they stepped outside and saw what they would be travelling and living in for the next two weeks. What stood before them was an enormous, five storey high and as wide as it was tall, red London bus. It looked positively deformed to Hannah with all the layers of modifications it had undergone and Hannah then saw another modification at the front of it. Harnessed up to the front of the enormous bus were a dozen thestrals.

Hannah had been able to see thestrals for the last two years as she had been with her great aunt when she had died, along with the rest of the family. She'd had a huge shock the first time she'd seen them as she always assumed the carriages which brought them to the castle from Hogsmeade station were magically self-propelled but they were drawn by thestrals which can only be seen by someone who had seen death. They looked like giant, almost skeletal horses with dark leathery skin and large scaly wings sprouting from their backs.

Hannah heard the other students coming out of the doors behind them and making similar gasps as they saw the incredible sight in front of them.

'This way please' said Professor McGonagall, who was smiling too, wiping away her usual stern expression and making her look almost as excited as the students as a result. She walked to the back of the bus, waved her wand and the walls at corner of the bus for the bottom storey vanished making the entrance the same as a Routemaster bus. The five of them practically ran over to the entrance to the bus; they turned and waved to the students who were watching them stood in the cold outside the castle before they stepped on board.

The interior of the bus was brightly lit and felt much more spacious than Hannah had anticipated. On the bottom level there were two round tables with tablecloths on and five chairs around each at one end and at the other was a compact kitchen which Hannah hoped they would only be using when they were travelling as she was used to plentiful amounts of food at Hogwarts. There was a spiral staircase in the middle at the back of the bus and they saw their trunks disappearing up the staircase as Professor McGonagall sent them where they needed to be.

Professor Longbottom then appeared on the bus behind them which took them all by surprise.

'I'm not too late am I?' he asked.

'Too late for what sir?' asked Hannah, who was only aware of Professor McGonagall being their chaperone for the trip.

'I've got my trunk' he said just as his trunk shot into the bus at high speed and the students had to duck to avoid it. 'Oops, sorry' he said 'I was in a hurry, I thought I was going to miss it!'

'Are you coming with us then sir?' asked Dana, who knew Professor Longbottom better than the other students because she was in Gryffindor and Professor Longbottom was the Head of Gryffindor house.

'I certainly am' said Professor Longbottom. 'Professor McGonagall asked me to chaperone as well since I've got some experience in the field and so that there is a male teacher on board since we have a male student.' Professor Longbottom nodded towards Lawrence Lancaster who seemed to look at him with disdain. 'Right, I'd better get my things upstairs then' said Professor Longbottom as he waved his wand again and his trunk eagerly zoomed up the stairs before he hurried after it.

'Shall we then?' asked Maggie, gesturing towards the spiral staircase.

'Let's' said Hannah grinning and they headed up the stairs to see what the next floor held.

They stepped out onto the next floor and saw three very comfy looking sofas on one side of the floor with what looked like a green-flamed fire in the middle of them. Hannah walked over to it and she could feel the heat coming from it but there wasn't any smoke and it didn't seem to be burning anything. 'Handy fire' she said, making a note to learn how to do that herself.

Silv bounded across the room and flopped down on one of the sofas with Dana close behind springing onto the sofa next to her. Maggie came to stand next to Hannah by the fire but Lawrence was still on the other side of the room, looking around that. That's when Hannah saw what else the room was being used for, there was a duelling practice area marked out on the floor, the same as they used sometimes in their training sessions, with lots of diagrams on the walls showing different jinxes and hex and counter-hexes and things. Lawrence was studying the posters carefully and Hannah was just about to walk over there to take a look herself when Professor McGonagall appeared at the stairs.

'I see you've started to settle in already' she said, looking at the pair slumped across one of the sofas. Silv and Dana stood up from the sofa and they all looked attentively at Professor McGonagall. 'We shall we living in this small space for the next two weeks, however we shall be taking as much advantage of the facilities of the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic as possible. You will also receive lessons from myself and Professor Longbottom in here as the classes at Beauxbatons are conducted in French as you would expect and their curriculum runs quite differently to our own.' The students nodded and Hannah surmised that they would have the desks and equipment they needed for lessons provided by Professor McGonagall as and when they had the classes since there didn't seem to be a classroom setup anywhere on board that she had seen.

'The journey to Beauxbatons will take most of the day and night' she continued 'so once we have retired to our beds then we should wake up already in situ tomorrow morning.' Hannah looked at Maggie with an excited smile on her face and Maggie seemed to be feeling the same by her expression, tomorrow they would be living in France for two weeks in the exotic Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. The last Triwizard tournament was held at The Durmstrang Institute, which was just before Hannah joined Hogwarts but she's heard all about it from her sister as they heard about it from the students who had been chosen to compete. Cassie hadn't been old enough so she'd had to stay at Hogwarts with the rest of the school hearing the news as those at Durmstrangs had sent it. The next Triwizard cup would be held at Beauxbatons so no-one knew what their school was like everyone was desperately curious.

'For now, we have the day to try and enjoy the journey' continued Professor McGonagall. 'There are windows on the dormitory levels, by the sofas and on the dining level for you to watch our progress.' Professor McGonagall waved her wand and curtains next to the sofas sprang open revealing clouds drifting passed the windows.

'I didn't realise we'd set off' said Hannah, who hadn't felt any motion at all since they had stepped on board and would have liked to have know when they'd left Hogwarts and waved from the windows at the students cheering them on.

'The thestrals have been excellently trained' said Professor McGonagall. 'They make for a very smooth ride these days.' All of the girls moved onto the sofas and peered out of the windows; Lawrence remained on the other side of the room however. They were flying a lot higher than Hannah was anticipating but of course it made sense for them to fly high as they wouldn't want to be seen by a muggle but there were probably enough enchantments on them that a muggle would find it very difficult to see them even if they were trying to.

'I believe you'd probably like to see where you'll be sleeping for the next two weeks though' said Professor McGonagall and when Hannah turned round to look at her she was smiling at them all, enjoying their excitement. It was nice to see Professor McGonagall looked more relaxed than Hannah was used to seeing her and looking genuinely excited about something, albeit not with the same giddy excitement the students were showing. 'Follow me' said Professor McGonagall and she headed up the spiral staircase.

Lawrence reached the stairs first and started heading up followed by the girls with Hannah in the middle of the pack. When they walked out onto the next level it reminded Hannah of the hospital wing at Hogwarts. There were five four-poster beds, each with their own hangings like their beds in Hogwarts, but around that were more rails where curtains could be drawn around the area surrounding the bed. This allowed each of the students to have their own area and their own privacy which was more privacy than they were used to in the castle at Hogwarts but then those dormitories aren't mixed ones where here they had to be. Each bed had a trunk at the foot of it and Hannah saw the Hufflepuff house badge her sister Cassie had painted onto her trunk when it used to belong to her at the foot of the bed in the far corner. Each of the girls were opposite another girl with Lawrence's trunk being at the foot of the bed closest to the stairs which didn't face another bed. Dana didn't waste any time as she dashed over to her bed, which was the one between Hannah's and Lawrence's, and jumped up onto the bed.

'I think this is bigger than my bed at Hogwarts!' Dana said happily, lying on her back with her arms and legs spread as wide as she could. They all headed to their beds and tried them out; Hannah thought the beds weren't just bigger than their usual ones at Hogwarts but they were softer too.

'There are two bathrooms on the floor above us' said Professor McGonagall who was smiling as she watched them bounce around on their new beds. 'One is for Mr Lancaster and Professor Longbottom, the other is for myself and you ladies, so make sure you keep it clean and in order since we'll be sharing.' She said this in a stern but playful way so it didn't sound so much like she was chiding them but they did know that she was serious about it.

'The final floor is out of bounds to students as that is the private quarters for the teachers.' She wasn't smiling as she told them about their own floor and Hannah didn't think any of them would dare try and sneak into their quarters. 'There will be certain nasty effects wrought on any intruders so I wouldn't recommend trying to take a peek either' said Professor McGonagall with one eyebrow raised.

Hannah laid back on the bed and sunk into the soft blankets covering it and she thought she'll be happy to spend the next couple of weeks here, especially with her best friends whom she had never shared a dormitory or even a common room with before since they were in different houses. As she lay there contemplating the tip ahead of them she found she didn't think she'd mind even if they did really badly in the duelling competition as it was all worth it for this trip.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

The bus was still travelling when Professor McGonagall made them all go to bed at about ten o'clock. They'd tried staying up chatting quietly after they went to bed but Professor McGonagall must have set up some sort of listening charm as she knew they were chatting and came down in her nightgown, dressing gown and woolly slippers to tell them they had to stop chatting and get to sleep. Lawrence had seemed like he had wanted to join in the conversation and Hannah felt bad that he was being left out but Dana kept on jibing at his whenever he did speak and Hannah knew she wouldn't be able to overcome the Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry to make them get along so she just acted kindly to Lawrence and tried not to leave him out if she could.

They awoke the next morning at about seven o'clock when they heard an alarm sounding from above them. Professor McGonagall's amplified voice then rang through the bus from her quarters at the top saying 'Time to get up students, it might be a Sunday but we have a busy day ahead of us.'

Hannah heard Silv groan at hearing this and she thought maybe her and Dana had found a way to keep chatting after they'd all gone to sleep, it being the first time the two of them had been able to share a dormitory as well.

Before Hannah had forced herself up and out of the bed she heard the pitter-patter of steps from the bed opposite her, across the floor and up the spiral staircase and she surmised that Maggie wanted to get into the bathroom before any of the other girls started queuing for it.

By the time Maggie had come back, Hannah had managed to shrug on her dressing gown and slippers and draw back the curtains surrounding her bed. It was quite odd to be greeted by the sight of a boy in his pajamas as Lawrence was up and about already and seemed to be heading back to his bed from somewhere on the floor. Hannah rubbed her eyes as Maggie bounded back to her bed, a bundle of excitement and said 'Your turn Han' gesturing to the staircase.

'Anyone else want to go first?' Hannah asked the room but she only got one answer and that was from Dana.

'You go ahead' she said.

So Hannah headed up to the floor above where the bathroom was.

When she had made her ablutions the night before, all she had seen was the toilet and the sink and she had been impressed enough by that. The toilet had a stand next to it which was stacked with books on duelling spells and also that day's copy of the Daily Prophet and the sink sat beneath a mirror which had been surrounding by a small shelf for each person to keep their items on, denoted by their name on the front of their shelf. Hannah cleaned her teeth and looked around for where she could bathe and she noticed a door at the back which was labelled 'Bathing'.

She pushed open the door and entered the bathing room.

The middle of the room was taken up with a large, cast-iron, claw-footed bath which had four taps leading into it. Hannah peered at the tops of the taps to see what they all were but saw only colours; there was red and blue which she took to be the hot water and the cold water and there was also pink and violet which she had no idea what they would be.

Behind the bath there was a large cubicle with a huge shower head hanging above it and five different valves with the same colours on them as the taps hanging over the bath and a fifth one which was coloured black.

On the nearside wall there were seven rails of towels with names on each and two big fluffy towels on each rail. Hannah grabbed her towel and looked at the bath and the shower and found them both looking inviting. The bathrooms they used in Hogwarts only had baths in them so she decided she would try out the shower. She disrobed and stepped in, turning the black coloured valve and the water poured out of the shower head above like a waterfall, covering an area far bigger than Hannah herself was.

She turned the red and blue valves until she was happy with the temperature and eyed the pink and violet ones wondering what they were.

She tentatively started turning the pink valve and she didn't really notice anything happening. She started massaging the water in her hair and when she glanced down she noticed that there were bubbles filling the shower at the bottom of the cubicle that had reached her knees already. She kicked her legs around and the bubbles kept on growing and growing. By the time they reached her waist she thought she'd better turn off the pink valve as that must be what was creating the bubbles. As Hannah turned down the valve the bubble instantly lowered in perfect synchronisation with the valve turning! Hannah turned it back and forth until the bubbles were up to halfway up her calf and she chuckled from the fun of it.

What will the violet valve do wondered Hannah and she turned it slowly. Jets of violet water started shooting out from the corner poles of the shower cubicle and as they hit Hannah's body it felt like she was being tickled by lots of hands at once. Hannah giggled madly being a ticklish person at the best of times as she turned down the violet valve the water jets stayed at the same strength but the level of tickling lowered. Hannah turned the valve down so that it was just barely tickling her and giggled away through the rest of her shower.

'That was AMAZING!' cried Hannah as she arrived back on the dormitory floor.

'Wasn't it!' said Maggie excitedly.

'Seriously guys' said Hannah to the rest of the team 'you HAVE to go and try that shower!'

'Oh I used the bath' said Maggie, 'it was _incredible_!'

'So was the shower!' said Hannah.

As they gathered on Maggie's bed to compare notes on the bathing facilities, the other three students raced up the stairs together to try for themselves. Silv slinked back down the stairs a couple of minutes later evidently having been beaten to the bathroom by Dana.

'You'll get to try it soon enough' said Hannah giving Dana a hug.

Once they were all ready and dressed in their Hogwarts robes, Professor McGonagall and Professor Longbottom, also dressed in formal robes, gathered them together on the sofa level.

'Welcome to France and to Beauxbatons' said Professor McGonagall warmly. Professor Longbottom was stood next to her grinning as well and Hannah thought he looked just as excited as they were to be there. 'We will be guests at a welcome feast in the Dining Chamber in the Palace of Beauxbatons this evening' continued Professor McGonagall, 'and from that point onwards for the two weeks we are here, I expect that you shall be given the freedom of the palace and offered the hospitality of taking your meals with the other students. Until such a formal welcome however, we are to remain on the bus and I suggest you use the time for some extra duelling practice as the first round of the competition will be occurring in less than one week.'

'I'll be here watching and helping as much as I can' said Professor Longbottom. 'It'll be a bit trickier than your usual practices in the confinement of the bus but it's good to train for every scenario anyway.'

The students all nodded in acknowledgement and Hannah started to feel nervous about the competition already.

'But firstly' said Professor McGonagall 'we have prepared breakfast for you.'

They spent the day as Professor McGonagall had said, training some more and relaxing in their dorm. When it was six o'clock, Professor McGonagall summoned them and they went to leave the bus for the first time since they got on back at Hogwarts.

Professor McGonagall waved her wand and once again the back corner of the bottom floor vanished allowing them to step off the bus.

The first thing that Hannah noticed was how warm it was; they had left Hogwarts in the middle of December and the temperature was below freezing every day. Here Hannah felt overly warm in her thick Hogwarts robes and she wished she'd learnt a cooling spell which she had never needed before.

The bus was situated on the front lawn of the Palace of Beauxbatons, surrounded by a perfectly trimmed hedge and the garden continued around it as an array of flower beds and topiary bushes. Hannah saw there was a large lake off to one side of the gardens and what looked like a park off to the other side. In front of them stood the palace and Hannah thought she had never seen anything so beautiful before.

The palace was a great dome shape with ornate towers springing up from it in symmetry. It looked as though it was made entirely of glass but it sparkled like diamonds and it had a beautifully subtle blue tinge.

All of the students had stopped in their tracks to look at the beautiful palace and Hannah wondered how much more spectacular it was going to look in the sunlight. They made their way through the perfectly tendered gardens up to the palace but where the path led up to the building there didn't seem to be any door.

'Professor?' asked Hannah as they walked closer to the palace and the lack of a door became apparent to everyone.

'Yes Miss Crescent?' replied Professor McGonagall

'How do we get in?' asked Hannah. 'There's no door.'

'I have been instructed by Madam Maxine on the correct procedure for entering the school' said Professor McGonagall. 'When one has received an invitation to enter, as we have been given, then they are able to pass through the entrance in the same manner that platform nine and three-quarters is accessed at Kings Cross station.'

They reached the end of the path and Professor McGonagall, without breaking her stride at all, walked straight through the glass wall of the building. Professor Longbottom hesitated in front of the wall; Hannah saw him take a deep breath, screw up his eyes and walk through. The students all looked at each other knowing it was their turn next. Dana was the first one to go through, sporting a big grin she looked eminently confident as she disappeared through the glass. Lawrence followed very closely behind her and the remaining three girls held hands, gave each other one last look and stepped through together.

The palace was even warmer inside and Hannah was really wishing the Hogwarts uniforms weren't made of such thick woollen material and she had to wonder what the Beauxbatons students thought of the draughty old castle of Hogwarts when they visited. The floors looked like they were made of marble and they were so shiny that Hannah could see her reflection in them. There was a huge, ornate staircase in front of them which led away from them and then swept to each side into two separate staircases which criss-crossed each other as they wound up the circular room to the very top of the palace. In the middle of the entrance hall was a pure while Christmas tree which was so large, the tip looked like it reached the ceiling. It was covered in decorations and stars which were glowing brightly. The air above them looked like it was snowing but as the snow reached the air just above their heads it vanished, never reaching the floor. Hannah didn't think she had ever seen such beautiful Christmas decorations and she heard Maggie next to her let out a tiny squeal of delight.

'Pretty good' said Lawrence and Hannah was amazed at this unsolicited compliment from him.

Madame Maxine walked down the staircase as soon as they had walked in, accompanied by two other teachers. If the other teachers hadn't have been walking with Madame Maxine, Hannah wouldn't have realised just how large she was from that distance. She was about twice the height of the teachers she was walking next to and she was dressed in an evening gown which looked as though it was made from liquid diamonds if such a thing were possible. She was beautifully elegant yet so huge, Hannah had only ever seen one other person as large as she was and that was their Care of Magical Creatures teacher and the Gamekeeper of Hogwarts, Professor Hagrid and she'd heard rumours that Professor Hagrid was actually half-giant on his mother's side.

'Bienvenue au Palais de Beauxbatons' said Madame Maxine as she approached Professor McGonagall. 'Eet is lovely to see you again Professor McGonagall'

'Thank you for your hospitality Madam Maxine' replied Professor McGonagall before they then shook hands very formally.

'Would you like to come through to zee Dining Chamber?' asked Madam Maxine. 'We 'ave prepared a welcome feast in your honour.'

'That is very kind of you' said Professor McGonagall.

'Please wait 'ere until I 'ave announced you' said Madame Maxine before she swept off through two large double doors which Hannah thought could easily be made of crystal. The route Madam Maxine had walked seemed to have been left with a trail of sparkles on the ground.

They waited in the grand entrance hall for about ten minutes before the huge crystal-like doors swung open and they heard applause coming from the room within. Professor McGonagall led the group, followed by Professor Longbottom. There was a little scuffle as the students sorted out what order they were going to walk in as, with Dana taking the lead followed by Lawrence, then Silv, Maggie and lastly Hannah who hadn't realised she was nervous until they started walking.

The dining chamber was as tall as the Great Hall in Hogwarts but it looked as though it was made entirely of crystal. Every surface sparkled and glistened. The ceiling looked as though stars were embedded in the crystal and the twinkling light from them was refracted a thousand times in the crystals before then filling the whole room with their light. Hannah was used to there being four long tables with benches either side stretching the length of the great hall but here in Beauxbatons the room was filled with about twenty large round tables which each had about a dozen students seated around them. They were all wearing a matching pale blue uniform which looked to be made of silk and Hannah couldn't discern any difference between the uniforms of the students, unlike their own where they were displaying four different house badges amongst the five of them. Madame Maxine was stood in the centre of the room, looking even taller for everyone around her being sat down and Professor McGonagall was walking directly towards her. Professor Longbottom paused in front of Hannah and the team and turned around to say, over the noise of the applause, 'There are free seats at most tables, just find somewhere to sit, we'll be at the teachers' table.' Hannah hadn't noticed the long table at the end of the room which seated the teachers, looking out over the room in much the same way that the teachers sat presiding over the Great Hall at Hogwarts.

'Welcome Professor Mac-Gone-eagle' said Madam Maxine as Professor McGonagall and Professor Longbottom approached her. 'Eet is wonderful to 'ave you 'ere, and you also Professor Longbottom.'

Hannah looked around for where they could sit but there didn't seem to be five seats free on any one table. 'We're going to have to split up' said Hannah.

'There's three seats on that table over there and two seats on the one next to it' said Silv, gesturing at some tables near the edge of the room.

'Ok, that looks like our best option' said Hannah. 'Does anyone want to volunteer to be on the table with two seats?' she asked them all. She looked round at the group with her three friends and Lawrence and thought it was probably best to split their group of four friends into two sets of two and then put Lawrence with one of them. 'Maggie? How about you and me take the two seats?'

'That's fine with me' said Maggie and Hannah saw Dana and Lawrence share a glance which probably meant they didn't relish having to sit with each other but as long as Silv sat in between them then there shouldn't be any problems thought Hannah.

They took their seats at the tables and the some of the students on the table where Hannah and Maggie sat started whispering to each other.

'Is it alright for us to sit here?' asked Hannah, worried they'd done something wrong.

'Yes' answered the brown-haired girl sat next to Hannah who was smiling at them. 'You are welcome of course.'

'Thank you' said Hannah.

'You speak English well' said Maggie and Hannah realised that it hadn't even occurred to her that they wouldn't understand what they were saying.

'Zank you' said the girl 'Do you speak any French?' she asked.

'Erm, no' replied Hannah embarrassedly 'Sorry, we've never learnt any.'

'Oh!' replied the girl sounding very surprised. 'We are taught to speak English and Latin 'ere at Beauxbatons'

'Oh' said Hannah, feeling quite inadequate 'Right.'

'My name is Emmanuelle' said the girl. 'Eet is very nice to meet you.'

'Thank you and it's very nice to meet you too Emmanuelle' replied Hannah, knowing as she said it that she hadn't managed to pronounce Emmanuelle's name quite right. 'My name's Hannah and this is Maggie' she said gesturing to her friend who was in the process of wafting her heavy Hogwarts robes to try and cool off.

As they had been settling in at their table, Professor McGonagall and Professor Longbottom had taken seats at the end of the teachers' table and Madam Maxine sat in the middle of the teachers' table in a chair larger than the ones for the other teachers and with the table raised in front of her to allow her to sit and eat comfortably. Madame Maxine rose to her feet and she addressed the school in French. Hannah looked at Maggie who shrugged, knowing no more French than she did though they caught the odd word like ''Ogwarts' and 'Professeur Mac-Gone-eagle'. Madam Maxine then paused for a few seconds and spoke in English.

'Welcome to Professeur Mac-Gone-eagle, Professor Longbottom and the students of 'Ogwarts to zee Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. We are very pleased to 'ave you 'ere to visit us for zis new and exciting competition. For now zough, let us forget about zee competition and enjoy zee feast.'

Madam Maxine waved her wand and sparks descended from the ceiling covering each table in a curtain of glimmering magic. All of the Hogwarts students let out fascinated noises like 'Oooh' and Hannah saw some of the students on their table smile at each other at their reaction. The curtain of sparks lasted for only about

five seconds and when it fell away completely, the middle of each table was filled with food.

The Beauxbatons students on the table didn't waste any time in tucking into the food, ladling and spooning food out onto their plates and Hannah thought there were some things which didn't seem to any different between their two schools.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

The five Hogwarts students staying at the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic had spent the last five days taking their classes on board the giant bus, taught by Professor McGonagall and Professor Longbottom. None of them had ever had lessons from Professor McGonagall before and Hannah found her to be a strict but good teacher and enjoyed her lessons. The class size was smaller than the ones they were used to so Hannah thought they all got a lot more from the lessons but Dana was saying that there wasn't any opportunity to slack off. Lawrence seemed to only be putting in the minimum effort as well and Hannah wondered if Dana and him would put aside their differences to work out how they could manage to skive by pooling their resources.

In the evenings they had been training which was proving difficult in the confines of the bus as they were used to using either the quidditch pitch or the room of requirement, so they were getting hit by some spells which were bouncing back from the bus walls. Professor McGonagall had explained to them how the bus had a lot of enchantments on it and one of them was the imperturbable charm which is what made the spells ricochet off it and back into the room. They daren't practise outside of the bus however, in case any of the Beauxbatons members saw them and gained an advantage.

'It's useful to practise for all scenarios' Professor McGonagall had said to them when they had complained. 'We don't know what location will be used for the competition round here at Beauxbatons.'

Today was the day of the first round of the competition though and they were all awake earlier than usual, the anticipation leaving them unable to sleep any longer, even Maggie who could usually sleep all morning if you let her. The usual scramble for the bathroom had started a full hour and a half earlier than usual with them all anxious to feel ready to take on anything. Hannah had been using the bath most of the week, with its bubble bath tap and another tap which made candles appear and adjusted the light they produced. She needed energising rather than relaxing this morning though so she hopped into the shower and gave herself a dose of the tickling water whilst she was in there to really liven her up.

By the time they went through to the Beauxbatons dining chamber for their fresh croissants, they were feeling as ready as they possibly could.

They had spent very little time with the Beauxbatons pupils, only really seeing them when they were having their meals together. The students that had seen though hadn't told them who was on the Beauxbatons team, and they had asked everyone they had eaten at the table with. Hannah was hoping they could at least have a look at their competition before they were told they had to duel them.

No-one from Beauxbatons sat at their table during breakfast that morning and Hannah realised that they had probably only been sitting with them for the other meals in order to size up their competition like she wanted to with them, and so they had probably already met the students whom they would be duelling.

Hannah noticed that there were some people she didn't recognise sat at the teachers' table as well, three of them. Maggie nudged her as she was peering at them.

'That's Percy Weasley' she said pointing to the unsmiling, ginger-haired man sat at the teachers' table.

'Who?' asked Hannah who had never heard of a Percy Weasley and she wondered if he was related to Ron Weasley who fought against and helped defeat Voldemort with Harry Potter back in 1998.

'He works at the ministry' said Maggie. 'I've seen his picture in the paper. He must be one of the judges.'

'Oh yeah' said Hannah. 'Those other two must be from the ministries for the countries the other schools are in then.'

'I think they must be' replied Maggie.

Madame Maxine addressed the dining chamber one they had finished breakfast. Although not all of the students were present, Hannah assumed that all of the members of the Beauxbatons team must be there. She spoke in French first but she then spoke in English much to Hannah's relief.

'Zee day 'as arrived for the first round of zee First Inter-School Duelling Competition' said Madam Maxine. 'Zee format of zee competition will be as follows. At eleven o'clock zis morning, zere will be zee team duelling challenge. Zere will be time for treatment of any injuries before zee individual challenges at four o'clock zis afternoon.' Hannah had been so focussed on the team duelling that she had completely forgotten that there was going to be an individual round as well and she started to feel really nervous then.

Professor McGonagall collected them from their table and took them back to their bus with Professor Longbottom.

When they were back at their bus, they practiced some more that morning but focussed mainly on their team duelling tactics. Everyone had liked the tactics that Hannah had organised for the team when they had the try-outs at Hogwarts so those were the tactics they had been practising for since then. Neither Lawrence or Dana wanted to try being the supporting defensive and healing roles so Maggie, Silv and Hannah had all trained for those roles, with Maggie and Silv planning on starting in them but if both of them became incapacitated then Hannah would be ready to take over the role. They had no idea what the Beauxbatons team's tactics were going to be but if they had opted for a similar strategy then their plan was to take out the defensive members first in the hopes that they didn't have anyone else covering.

When it was nearly time for them to set off from the bus, Professor McGonagall addressed them all.

'I have been waiting until today to announce this' she said very formally, 'so as to observe the team as much as possible before making a decision.' Hannah had no idea what announcement about the team could be being made so close to the competition. 'And I would like to congratulate the new Team Captain of the Hogwarts Duelling Team, Miss Hannah Crescent.' Hannah's friends applauded her enthusiastically, Lawrence had his arms folded and a look of thunder on his face though. Hannah just couldn't believe it. She hadn't known that there was going to be a team captain and she certainly wouldn't have expected she would be in the role if she had know, she thought maybe Dana or Lawrence would be better placed as they were both quite fearless in the fight and they could lead them into the charge, but then thought Hannah, that's perhaps why they hadn't been selected. They were too focussed on the attack and not on the team itself. So perhaps Silv or Maggie would have been best for the role, as they were all about looking after the team and supporting it. But then, thought Hannah, perhaps that was therefore focussing too internally and in fact only her role of attack with fallback to defence if it was needed was the one which looked both within the team and outside of it and Hannah understood why she was chosen. Professor McGonagall pinned a badge to her robes which read 'Duelling Team Captain'. Hannah beamed with pride to wear the badge and it seemed to wipe away any nerves she had been feeling.

The team duel was to take place at the Beauxbatons quidditch pitch so with fifteen minutes until the duel, Professor McGonagall led the way to take them there.

The Beauxbatons quidditch pitch was different to the one they have at Hogwarts. At Hogwarts there was a field which was surrounded by stands with seats high up at the tops of them. Here at Beauxbatons, there were no stands like at Hogwarts but there were floating pods of seats, about eight seats in each one. They seemed to move around in the air depending on where the occupiers wanted to be looking, so with the Beauxbatons team assembled on the ground, the pods were low to the ground for the best view.

The Hogwarts team gathered on the pitch, keeping their distance from the Beauxbatons team in case their overheard their tactics.

'Do your stretches please team' said Professor Longbottom. 'We want you nice and limber for casting those spells and most importantly, dodging the ones that lot cast at you.' He nodded his head towards the Beauxbatons team and Hannah saw that they were huddled in a group in discussion, probably about their own tactics and Hannah wished she could hear what they were saying.

While they were stretching, Hannah saw the three judges they had seen at breakfast get into a pod of their own looking very serious. There was the ginger-haired gentleman who looked like he was in his late thirties who Maggie had told her was Percy Weasley. There was a serious-looking lady who looked to be in her fifties who had her dark hair tied up in a very neat bun and was wearing pastel pink robes. The last gentleman was a portly man who looked like he was probably in his sixties but it was hard to tell as he had an enormous bushy beard covering half of his face.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Longbottom looked like they had a pod all to themselves and Madam Maxine had only one other person in the pod next to her, an older wizard who Hannah had seen in the dining chamber before.

Once it was almost eleven o'clock, a young-looking male teacher from Beauxbatons came to the centre of the field and blew a whistle. Despite the fact that the whole school must have been there, silence fell immediately and Hannah was astounded by how obedient they all were even in such a large group. Or perhaps, thought Hannah, it was that they were excited for the duel to start so they didn't want to delay it.

'Teams, approach me please' said the wizard in English. His voice was amplified so that everyone watching was able to hear as well.

'At the request of 'Ogwarts, all official instructions will be given in English' he said 'so that there can be no accusations of extra information being passed to the Beauxbatons team.' Hannah understood that this was for fairness but she did feel sorry for the Beauxbatons team having to hear everything in a language which wasn't their first language, she couldn't imagine having to translate from another language like that when they were all already so nervous and on edge.

'The duel will last for ten minutes or until all of one team 'as been incapacitated. Points will be given to each team based on the difficulty of the spells they use and the way in which they conduct themselves. Please remember that there is not allowed the spells that are the killing curse, the cruciatus curse and the imperius curse. The ten minutes will start when I blow my whistle and when I blow it again it will mark the end of the duel and any spells cast after that time will result in a penalty to the team. Are there any questions?'

Both teams looked around at each other, Hannah tried to act as her role of team captain and asked 'Everyone happy?' and just received nods back so she looked to the wizard addressing them and shook her head for the team. There were no questions from the Beauxbatons team either, which meant they had all understood the English perfectly which impressed Hannah.

'Very well' said the wizard 'All pods raise to minimum safe distance please' he said to the crowd around them as the seating pods were still almost touching the ground and Hannah was relieved they were moving further away, she didn't want to be worrying about stray spells hitting spectators. The pod which held the three judges was quite a lot closer to them than the rest of the pods but Hannah thought they were all probably good enough duellers themselves to protect themselves from anything which strayed their way. The wizard who had been speaking to them got into his own pod then as well, and floated up to be next to the pod with the judges in it.

'Take your positions' said the wizard, sounding just as loud despite being significantly further away.

The two teams arranged themselves on either side of the line and Hannah took in the formation the Beauxbatons team were using. Three of them were stood right on the line which separated their starting areas with the other two very close behind them, which made Hannah think they were likely to go for a very aggressive start. She recognised some of the team members as people they had eaten with this week but she couldn't remember their names as she found the French names difficult to pronounce and even harder to remember. Hannah looked around and her team were all in position, with Dana and Lawrence to the left and right at the front of their group, Hannah set back from them and in the middle and behind her to the left and right were Maggie and Silv.

The whistle then blew and the duel had begun.

Hannah saw the five Beauxbatons students, who were all poised ready, right by the line between their starting areas, all lunge forward to attack immediately. Hannah dove off as fast as she could to her right, casting a 'Stupefy!' stunning spell in the direction of the group of Beauxbatons students. She didn't manage to see if it connected with any of them as she tumbled into a roll dodging a red streak of light that almost hit her. She saw Silv bounce forward past her yelling 'Protego!' as Hannah stayed close to the ground as she took aim at a Beauxbatons boy who was about to attack Lawrence.

'Levicorpus!' yelled Hannah and the Beauxbatons boy was suddenly picked up in the air by his ankle and dangled there. He looked as though he was going to try a counter spell but before he had overcome the shock to cast it, Lawrence had hit him with the full body bind curse and he was now dangling in the air, upside down held by his ankle and unable to move.

Hannah hoped he didn't get hit by a stray spell where he was but she couldn't spend any more time thinking about him as she saw in the left of her peripheral vision, a large Beauxbatons boy heading towards her yelling something she couldn't understand.

Quick as she could think it, Hannah was casting a spell back at him 'Colloshoo!' she yelled, aiming at his feet and the boy stopped in his tracks right where he was, his feet stuck to the ground. He had finished casting his spell though and it caught Hannah in her right leg. Her whole leg went numb, she couldn't feel anything and she couldn't move it anymore either. She looked down but her robes were covering it, she lifted them a little, enough to see what the damage was. The French boy had turned her leg into stone. That was complex and dangerous magic and Hannah wondered if he would be rewarded for the complexity or punished for the danger it had put Hannah in.

Hannah was angry now and focussed on the large boy who had just hit her and was now trying to cast a spell to unstick his feet.

'Expelliarmus!' she yelled first, making the boy's wand go flying from his hand where he couldn't reach it with his feet still stuck. Then she yelled 'Flipendo!' making the large boy fly backwards onto the floor but with his feet still stuck to the ground and he hit the ground with a bigger bang than Hannah had anticipated. Hannah was just contemplating casting a stinging hex when she saw Maggie running towards her with a cry of 'Protego!' As soon as she had cast the shield protection in front of Hannah, sparks flew all around her as a powerful spell hit it. Hannah couldn't move anywhere but she looked around and saw a Beauxbatons girl where she thought the spell had originated. She was laughing even though the spell hadn't connected so Hannah assumed it had to have been something really nasty, and judging by the spell the large boy had hit her with, they were playing pretty dirty compared to the Hogwarts team. She tried not to imagine what it was but she had visions of it being the Instant Scalping Hex and shuddered.

Hannah knew some pretty nasty spells herself but she didn't want to actually hurt anyone so she wasn't about to cast any of them. Maggie came up close to her and tried to cast a healing spell on her but she knew that wasn't going to help, the stone spell was stronger than the simple 'Episkey' they knew.

Hannah threw two spells at the Beauxbatons girl who had attacked her, one immediately after the other.

'Obscuro! Oppugno!' she yelled as she aimed right for the girl's head. Her aim was good and the girl immediately clasped her hands to hers eyes as she found himself unable to see but in the meantime, a swarm of bees had shot out from Hannah's wand and were heading straight for the girl and she had no idea as she couldn't see them. She started yelling things in French as the bees started to sting her but Hannah couldn't understand what she was saying. She dropped her wand and then stepped onto it and Hannah cringed as she heard the snap of the precious wood and couldn't help but feel bad for her for the individual rounds later. Maggie was still trying to cast something to help Hannah's leg but Hannah knew that was no use, they didn't know the magic it would take to fix a transfiguration of a person to stone.

'Go help someone else' she said, as she saw Dana on the floor clutching her arm. 'There! Dana needs help!' she said pointing towards her and Maggie dashed across the pitch towards her.

Hannah looked round and saw that the Beauxbatons team were down to two people left now, but with Dana down and Maggie looking after her, they were only three against them and that was with Hannah immobile.

'BIND AND BAG THE BLONDE!' yelled Hannah to Lawrence across the field which was the nickname they'd given the move in training for one person to cast the full body bind curse whilst the other casts the rope tying spell. 'Incarcerous!' she yelled sending ropes flying out from the end of her wand and wrapping around the blonde girl who was close to Lawrence. The ropes encompassed her just a second or two after she became paralysed from the spell Lawrence hit her with and Hannah was really pleased with Lawrence's progress with team work but as she stood there feeling proud and pleased, the last Beauxbatons student, a brown-haired girl Hannah remembered meeting at the welcome feast, yelled out a spell at Silv and she was knocked to the ground and covered in green slime which Hannah had to wonder whether it was bogies as she'd heard something about a jinx that could do that.

'Maggie!' yelled Hannah and Maggie looked round at her. 'It's Silv!' she yelled pointing to her and Maggie ran over to try and help her. In the meantime, Lawrence and the Beauxbatons girl were firing spells at each other and dodging them or shielding them each time. A couple of the curses had hit and Lawrence now started sprouting antlers whilst Hannah could see the girl's toenails were growing through her shoes. Hannah saw her opportunity when Lawrence managed to hit her with a trip jinx and she fell down onto the ground.

'Locomotor Mortis!' she yelled and the girls legs stuck together, stopping her in her attempt to scramble back up. Hannah pointed her wand at the ground near the girl and yelled 'Deprimo!'. Lawrence looked around at her in surprise as he wondered what she was doing. Hannah had blasted a hole in the ground.

'Wingardium Leviosa!' she said finally and with a swish and a flick of her wand, she was levitating the girl who was struggling against the spell and she dropped her into the hole she had blasted.

A whistle sounded from above them and the duel was over.

Hannah took in the scene around her and she stood there with her leg still stone, there was Dana still down on the ground and clutching her arm but sitting up now and looking like she wasn't in as much pain as before. Silv still had green slime all over her but her face was clear of it and she seemed to be ok now, she was sitting up as well but with the help of Maggie. Maggie looked to be the only one on their team who was unscathed as Lawrence was sporting a very fine pair of antlers but he didn't seem to mind for some reason. The other team had certainly fared worse and that must have been what ended the duel rather than the time running out thought Hannah. The brown haired girl Hannah had put down the hole at the end was being helped out of it by Lawrence and Hannah wondered if Lawrence liked the French girl as he doesn't normally help people. The boy who had ended up hanging upside down in the air in a full body bind curse had also inadvertently been hit with a spell which had made him sprout insect feelers from his head which looked quite unpleasant to Hannah and she wondered which team that spell had come from. The bees Hannah had set on the Beauxbatons girl had flow away but she had her arms out in front of her as she still couldn't see and she was covered in bee stings. Hannah felt bad about how much she had hurt her but worst about the fact she had broken her wand because of what she had done. The large Beauxbatons boy Hannah had stuck to the floor seemed to have unstuck himself but one of the other members of his team had knocked him out with a stunning spell and the last person was the blonde girl who was still paralysed and wrapped in ropes.

'Great job team!' yelled Hannah to the team. 'I think we could all do with a little help now though.'

A few witches and wizards came dashing onto the pitch shortly after the whistle had blown and they started treating the pupils, though Hannah was sure they were prioritising the Beauxbatons ones.

Professor McGonagall and Professor Longbottom were soon on the pitch as well, helping to treat the Hogwarts students. Professor McGonagall, who Hannah had heard was particularly gifted at transfiguration and she had even heard that she could turn herself into a cat, which was a very rare quality in wizards, came over to treat Hannah's transfigured leg.

'This won't do' said professor McGonagall, tutting. 'I really think this should be against the rules, what if this had hit your heart? Or your head? No, no, this isn't right.' She examined Hannah then she waved her wand without saying a word and Hannah felt a change in her leg. She also fell backwards onto her bum as she had been leaning on the leg made of stone and it couldn't support her in its weakened state once it was transfigured back into her leg.

'Thank you Professor McGonagall' said Hannah once she had composed herself from falling.

'You and your team did very well Miss Crescent' said Professor McGonagall, 'Hogwarts will be proud.'

'Do you know when we'll hear the scores?' asked Hannah.'

'I believe they won't tell us the scores until after the individual rounds' replied Professor McGonagall. 'They appear to like the suspense here.' Hannah laughed, releasing the tension from the duel and Professor McGonagall went off to help the rest of the team.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

After all the teachers had worked on healing and releasing all of the students after the duel, Hannah saw Professor McGonagall talking to Madame Maxine and the three judges. She couldn't hear what they were saying but she heard things get quite heated. Professor Longbottom led them back to the bus whilst they were still arguing so they didn't get to see what happened. Hannah almost felt sorry for Madame Maxine and the judges though, she certainly wouldn't want to be on the bad side of Professor McGonagall; she scared Hannah with just a look if she'd done anything wrong and aside from that she'd heard stories from the Great Battle of Hogwarts in 1998 about the things she had done. Tales get exaggerated over time and Hannah knew this, but somehow she found it very believable that Professor McGonagall would animate all of the suits of armour in the castle to create an army to set upon the attackers of the castle.

Dana was leaning on Silv as they walked back to the bus as he arm was still causing her problems but none of them knew what had been done to it though they'd told her it would recover over the next couple of hours. Once they were back on the bus and Professor McGonagall was with them as well, they had a debrief of the duel

'Don't waste your time trying to heal something like a leg that has been transfigured into stone' Professor McGonagall said to Maggie 'healing spells are never going to have any effect on a transfiguration and you certainly shouldn't attempt a delicate and major restorative transfiguration during a duel.' Maggie nodded solemnly. 'If you must do something to help if a similar situation recurs, then protect the student until they are able to continue duelling.'

'Yes Professor' replied Maggie, who knew better than to argue and Hannah thought she looked as though she was feeling guilty about it.

'You did a great job though' said Hannah. 'And thanks for trying to fix me, you couldn't have known when you came over what a horrible thing they'd done to me.'

'Yes' said Professor McGonagall, 'and against the rules of the competition, although not everyone seems to hold that same opinion.' Professor McGonagall's lips pursed as she said this and Hannah could almost feel the anger coming from her.

'Lawrence' said Professor McGonagall, moving on from the subject she found so disagreeable. 'You must be more careful when you choose to dodge rather than block, to make sure you aren't putting a team mate into the line of fire instead.' Professor McGonagall looked pointedly at Dana at that point. 'That was a particularly nasty spell as well as I'm sure you can tell, and she had no opportunity to defend herself.'

'What was it they did to me Professor?' asked Dana, still clutching her injured arm.

'It looks to me to be a fermentation spell' she said with disgust. 'I believe the French witches and wizards use it commonly on their grapes for the purpose of making wine, it isn't a spell which was designed to be used on people, especially not living people, and yet on of these students used it during an official inter-school duel.' Professor McGonagall really spat out the words and Hannah could see how upset and angry she was with the Beauxbatons team and its teachers.

Dana looked disgusted at hearing what had been cast on her arm and Lawrence looked as though he was going to be sick, probably imagining what would have happened if he hadn't dodged and it had hit him thought Hannah.

'We shall not lower ourselves to such vile spells however' said Professor McGonagall, sitting up tall and sounding proud of her team. 'But next is the individual round and we have been focussing mainly on the group duelling as that was least familiar and needed practicing as a group, so let us discuss our tactics for the next round.'

They ate a hearty lunch on board the bus rather than in the Beauxbatons dining chamber as they usually did, as Professor McGonagall said she couldn't trust anyone at Beauxbatons, muttering things about 'cheating' and 'dangerous' under her breathe. They were all very impressed with the steak and kidney pudding Professor McGonagall made, and impressed how she made it all using magic as well, never dirtying her hands once.

By half past three, they were all quite nervous about the individual rounds. Hannah's leg didn't like it was fully recovered, it still felt quite stiff so she was limping a bit and she wasn't as nimble as she usually was. Dana's arm was in a sling as it was going to take some time to recover from her ordeal but luckily it wasn't her wand arm and she was determined to do the best she could in the individual rounds.

'Do you think we got enough points to win this morning Professor McGonagall' asked Lawrence and Hannah thought he probably needed an ego boost to give him the confidence he needed for the next rounds.

'In my opinion you should have scored more points than the Beauxbatons team' replied Professor McGonagall. 'But then my opinion is also that two members of that team should be disqualified and they haven't been so I don't think my opinion is of much consequence I'm afraid Mr Lancaster.'

'I think you won' said Professor Longbottom happily. 'I thought you were all great, I was really impressed!'

'Thanks Professor' said Lawrence and Hannah literally saw his chest puff up.

'You should be thinking about the next round Mr Lancaster' scalded Professor McGonagall. 'This one takes place in the Beauxbatons Dining Chamber and is one-on-one duelling so there is little to be gained by dwelling on a duel with no relevance to the one coming up.'

'We learnt about them though' said Dana. 'And that's definitely relevant.'

'We learnt they have no regard to your lives, that much is certain' said Professor McGonagall who was still bristling with indignation about it all. 'Now gather yourselves together, we want to make sure we arrive in good time.'

They had their last looks over the books they had brought and got their wands together, each of them taking a deep breath before they left the bus and headed towards the Palace of Beauxbatons for the final stage of this round of the competition.

They walked into the dining chamber, striding confidently even though that wasn't how they felt. The members of the Beauxbatons team weren't there yet so the confident swagger which was intended to make them a little less confident didn't have the effect they had wanted. The same young wizard teacher who had acted as announcer on the quidditch pitch came over to them when they had entered the room and led them over to one side of the room. He then rushed back to the centre of the room, amplified his voice again and said in an excited voice 'Elèves de Beauxbatons, souhaitez la bienvenue à vos champions, l'équipe de duel de magie de Beauxbatons!' The room exploded into applause and the Beauxbatons duelling team walked into the room looking very pleased with themselves. Hannah just about managed to hear the announcer repeat himself in English over the sound of the applause. 'Students of Beauxbatons, please welcome your school champions, the Beauxbatons Duelling Team!'

Hannah was very pleased that they had arrived after the Beauxbatons team before the team duelling round as this was very intimidating and she thought it was a bit unfair that they didn't get an announcement when they arrived but on second thoughts, she decided it would probably be worse to get the announcement and have no-one applaud for them.

The Beauxbatons team were taken over to an area at the opposite side of the dining chamber by the announcer and the applause eventually died down. The Hogwarts team was still suffering from the earlier duel with Hannah limping and Dana's arm in a sling but the Beauxbatons team seemed to be in perfect health, which Hannah thought was likely to further enrage Professor McGonagall as that means that the Hogwarts team were casting responsible spells and the Beauxbatons team weren't but they still appeared to not be being punished for it. Hannah just didn't feel as angry about it as Professor McGonagall seemed to though, no, not angry but she did feel a little scared. There was a tiny part of Hannah which was worried one of them might break all the wizard laws and just A.K. her, which meant casting the killing curse, Avada Kadavra, for which there was no defence and it would kill instantly. No matter how badly they would be punished for it, she would be dead before anyone could do anything about it. She knew they would never do that though, they wanted to win the competition, they didn't have any personally against any of the Hogwarts team so she knew the worry was silly and would never happen but it was a tiny niggly worry nonetheless which was digging away at her confidence.

'Your attention please' said the amplified voice of the announcer wizard from the centre of the room and the chatter in the room quickly disappeared to silence. 'We shall now 'old the draw for which students will be duelling against which students.' He waved his wand and a large glass ball that looked like an oversized crystal ball from a divination class at Hogwarts appeared on a table in front of him. 'I 'ave 'ere the names of the students from both school teams' he said holding up slips of parchment before he dropped them into the bowl and Hannah could see them flying around inside it like there was a tiny hurricane inside it. 'The pairings for the individual duelling round will now be chosen' he announced. Hannah could almost hear the whole room hold its collective breath.

The wizard waved his wand and two pieces of parchment shot out of the top of the glass ball and floated down to the announcer's hand.

'Yolande Mouschard and Lawrence Lancaster' he read out from the parchment and the students in the hall politely applauded. Hannah didn't know which one of the girls on the team Yolande was but Lawrence was smiling.

'Ha!' said Lawrence triumphantly 'A girl!' and Hannah thought Lawrence was mad for thinking that somehow the student being a girl would make it any easier to beat her, especially considering nearly all of the champions chosen from Hogwarts were girls.

The announcer waved his wand again and again two pieces of parchment shot into the air from the glass ball and floated down to his hand. 'Sabine Cuvier and Margaret Gibbs' The students politely applauded again. Hannah looked at Maggie and she just shrugged, she didn't know what any of the French team were called either so none of them had a clue which ones were being called.

'Francine Forquaist and Silvestris Quinn' came the next announcement, followed by polite applause once more and Dana and Hannah exchanged looks as the last two to be drawn.

'Honoré Lacroix and Hannah Crescent' and the hall erupted into whoops and cheers. Hannah was stunned, not expecting this reception, she hadn't thought she'd stood out in the group duel at all and then she realised they were all cheering for Honoré Lacroix who had his hands in the air, soaking in the applause. It was the large boy who had turned her leg to stone in the group duel and Hannah's heart sank. This boy cast seriously dangerous spells, apparently with no recourse and was revered by the school so he was obviously not going to be dissuaded from casting more dangerous magic.

'Finally, Bénédict Vigne and Dana Dawson' said the announcer over the cheering and applause still filling the hall.

Hannah knew then that almost every person in that hall not only willed her to lose in her duel but expected her to as well. She could have let that get to her and feel like she couldn't possibly win but she decided to fight back. They might expect her to lose but maybe that was to her advantage, she needed to do the unexpected to succeed, she needed to beat this boy and put him in his place.

'Duels will be fought in the areas marked out on this side of the dining chamber' said the announcer wizard, indicating the area behind him where the judges were currently gathered. 'Please gather here in your respective positions now.'

Hannah felt a bit rooted to the spot as it was happening so fast and she wasn't the only one since none of the team had moved. Professor McGonagall started urging them to walk over towards the duelling area and they all started walking over there and Hannah couldn't help but think of a funeral procession.

They stood on their marks in the order their duels were called with the Beauxbatons students lining up opposite them and waited for further instructions.

'All duels will occur simultaneously' the announcer said 'and marks will be awarded for duelling skill and spell difficulty by our judges.' He gestured to the three judges who were stood over to one side now, who nodded in acknowledgement. Hannah couldn't help but think that it was unfair for the duels to happen simultaneously as the judges were bound to miss something.

'Take your positions' said the announcer and Hannah readied herself with her bad leg planted forwards and her wand braced in her right hand. 'Duel!'

Hannah immediately dropped and rolled to one side and then yelled out 'Protego!' putting up a shield in front of her. A red jet of light streamed past her where she had just been stood and the Beauxbatons boy seemed momentarily confused.

Hannah knew she needed marks for a variety of spells so she didn't want to go for the quick end to the duel. She took advantage of him being momentarily thrown to yell 'Densaugeo!' just as he yelled a spell back her which exploded in green sparks onto her shield but dissolved the shield. As the Beauxbatons boy clasped one hand to his mouth and tried to cast a spell at Hannah but nothing happened, she yelled 'Locomotor Wibbly!' and the boy's knees gave way beneath him. He put his hands down to break his fall and Hannah saw the result of her previous spell as his front teeth had grown to now be level with the bottom of his chin and judging by his last attempt at a spell it was having the desired effect of making his spell casting difficult.

Hannah paused a moment to think what she should cast next for maximum points and he heard the boy trying to splutter out a spell from the ground.

'Titillando!' she shouted with a thrust of her wand but as she cast the tickling hex at the boy, he managed to cast his spell at her and it felt like a knife had ripped open her whole side. She looked down to see her robes soaking in blood and she felt faint.

'Stupefy!' she managed to cast at the boy before falling to her knees clutching her side. She turned her wand round on herself and tried casting 'Episkey', the healing spell she knew. It had little effect but it did give her a brief surge of energy which she used to check her opponent was knocked out cold and shot sparks up into the air from her wand before falling completely to the floor and everything going dark.

'Miss Crescent! Miss Crescent!' Was that Professor McGonagall's voice? thought Hannah. 'Miss Crescent, can you open your eyes?' That was a good question thought Hannah, could she open her eyes. She focussed on her eyelids and cracked them open before slamming them shut again as the light was too bright. 'It's too bright for her' said Professor McGonagall. 'There Miss Crescent, it's dimmer now, you can open them now.'

Hannah slowly opened her eyes and saw Professor McGonagall towering over her and she was lying on her back.

'Is she alright?' Hannah heard Maggie's voice say.

'She will be Miss Gibbs, but you must give her some space' said Professor McGonagall.

'I'm alright' said Hannah and she tried to push herself up onto her elbows but a pain in her side felt like she was being stabbed with a knife and she fell back down, moaning with the pain.

'Do not try and move Miss Crescent!' said Professor McGonagall sternly. 'You have been very seriously injured, you must rest.'

'What happened?' asked Hannah, remembering something about her robes being covered in blood but not what had happened to cause it.

'Your duel was against a highly irresponsible student' said Professor McGonagall, clearly very annoyed. 'He has been disqualified as a result of his actions and thankfully we were able to save you.'

'Professor Longbottom went rushing over to help you!' said Maggie, who sounded keen to tell Hannah her version of the story. 'He was casting spells but nothing was helping you.'

'What did he do to me?' asked Hannah.

'He cast a particularly nasty spell which I shall not repeat' said Professor McGonagall, 'which tore you open down one side and would have killed you if you hadn't had some highly skilled wizards very close by.' Hannah thought she almost heard a tiny sob as Professor McGonagall was speaking and it hit her how close she must have been to dying.

'They stopped all the duels as soon as they saw something was wrong' said Maggie, 'we all couldn't believe what he'd done to you.'

'Did we win?' asked Hannah, realising they must have worked out the scores by now. 'Or do we have to do it again?' she asked thinking she couldn't go through that again.

'They totalled the scores as they stood at the point the duels were suspended' said Professor McGonagall, 'but they haven't yet announced the winners. They did at least announce that the boy who did this to you was disqualified for casting a life-threatening spell. Something they should have done after this morning's team duel if you ask me' she bristled.

'I made some tea' said Professor Longbottom bringing a mug over to where Hannah was lying.

'Let's see if we can sit you up' said Professor McGonagall who waved her wand and Hannah felt herself be pushed up from behind her back, Maggie stuffed some pillows down behind her and she felt herself get lowered back down onto the pillows as Professor McGonagall waved her wand again.

Professor Longbottom handed her the mug of tea and Hannah said 'Thank you Professor' as she hugged the mug. She saw she was laid in her own bed on the Hogwarts bus and she wondered how they had moved her there but then on second thoughts she didn't want to know as it was probably embarrassing.

'How are you feeling now?' asked Professor McGonagall.

'Better' said Maggie who could feel her energy returning the more she drank of the tea. She looked suspiciously at the mug in her hand and then at Professor Longbottom. 'Did you put something in here Professor?' she asked him.

'I brought a few plants I thought might come in useful' replied Professor Longbottom smiling.

'It's good' said Hannah, drinking down the last of it.

They filled Hannah in on what had happened with the other duels. Lawrence had won his duel within twenty seconds but Professor McGonagall didn't seem very impressed by that as she said he wouldn't have got many points for it. Dana was close to losing her duel but Maggie and Silv had both seemed in control with their duels and no-one else had sustained any lasting injuries other than Hannah. It sounded like the points might come out pretty level from the individual duels and Hannah knew that by rights they should get the most points from the team duel in the morning but what they should get might well be different to what they will get so they'd just have to wait and see, it was going to be close either way.

The announcement of the scores and consequently the winners was to be at eight o'clock in the dining chamber and so at ten minutes beforehand, Professor McGonagall had transfigured one of the dining chairs on the bus into a wheelchair and they carefully levitated her into the chair before levitating her and the chair down the stairs and off the bus. Professor McGonagall put a spell onto the chair to make it really smooth no matter how many bumps there were on the way and they were all in the dining chamber ready for the announcement in time for eight o'clock.

The Hogwarts students were led to a table to sit at when they arrived at the dining chamber, with no Beauxbatons students sitting with them at the table. Hannah felt all the eyes of the room on them and was sure they were hating her for the boy they all seemed to love being disqualified, though she hoped they at least felt bad for hating her since she was currently in a wheelchair and was amazed she'd even made it to the dining chamber.

Madame Maxine stood up at the teacher's table and a woman of her size standing up made a big impression on the room and the students quickly fell silent. She spoke in French and then Hannah assumed she said the same thing in English.

'Good evening everyone' said Madame Maxine. 'Welcome back to our champions and to zee 'Ogwarts students. We will be 'earing zee results of today's competition before we 'ave our food so zat we are not waiting through zee food for zee results.'

Hannah assumed Madame Maxine was more articulate in her native language and she was glad that her English was good enough for them to be able to understand as well, even if she had to concentrate to understand it.

'Wizout further ado' said Madame Maxine, ''ere is zee judge from zee Norwegian Ministry to announce zee results.' Madame Maxine sat down and Hannah noticed that for the first time that she had seen, she looked nervous.

The Slavic looking man who was sat with the other two judges stood up and cleared his throat.

'I have the results from today's competition' he said, very briskly and formally. 'Firstly, the team duelling competition. The marks are out of fifty points for each team. Hogwarts team, thirty-seven points. Beauxbatons team, thirty-two points.' There were some boos from students in the hall but most of them just remained silent. Hannah looked around at her team who were all grinning at each other but none of them were vocalising the happiness, and with the points being that close then it still all went down to the individual scores.

'Secondly, the individual competition. The marks are out of ten points for each student. 'Yolande Mouschard six points. Lawrence Lancaster six points.' A couple of boos echoed around the room and Lawrence looked angry when Hannah looked at him.

'Six points, that's ridiculous, I beat her and I beat her fast, I should have ten points, she shouldn't have got any' Hannah heard Lawrence muttering. She tapped him on the arm and put her finger to her lips, she really didn't want the Beauxbatons students hearing him speaking like that or they would be very unwelcome.

'Sabine Cuvier five points. Margaret Gibbs seven points.' Again there were a few boos in the room but Silv was patting a very happy looking Maggie on the back. Hannah couldn't reach her from her wheelchair but she grinned widely at her.

'Francine Forquaist six points. Silvestris Quinn seven points.' The boos seemed to be routine now and Hannah wondered if those students had started to feel foolish at all, but they congratulated Silv around the table.

'Honoré Lacroix disqualified, no points. Hannah Crescent nine points.' Hannah couldn't believe it, her jaw was practically on her lap, nine points! Maybe they had given her some sympathy points or something she thought. She could just about hear her team giving her an excited congratulations over the loud boos that now filled the hall. Evidently the disqualification of their favourite team member hadn't been received well and they likely blamed Hannah for it.

'Finally, Bénédict Vigne eight points. Dana Dawson five points' said the judge. 'This makes total Beauxbatons fifty-seven out of one hundred and total Hogwarts seventy-one out of one hundred. Winners are Hogwarts Team.' He led a round of applause which was only continued by the teachers and judges on the teachers table and on the Hogwarts table where they were up from their chairs except for Hannah and hugging each other. Maggie gave Hannah a huge hug in her wheelchair and Hannah thought she might have even seen Lawrence smiling and he hugged at least one other person in the team which was probably a real breakthrough for him.

They had won the team duel, won three of their individual duels, drawn one and lost one, it was an incredible triumph and seventy-one to fifty-seven was a score which was going to carry them through to the final round fantastically.

The atmosphere in the dining chamber was very morose whilst they ate their evening meal but the Hogwarts students couldn't stop grinning the whole way through. When they went back to their bus they were pretty much dancing all the way back except for Hannah who was still wheelchair bound.

'I am very proud of you all' said Professor McGonagall to them once they were back on the bus. 'You have represented Hogwarts outstandingly and have conducted yourself with dignity and expertise. You all well deserved your victory and you should all congratulate yourselves.'

They were allowed to stay up late that night celebrating although Hannah found at one point she fell asleep in her wheelchair and woke to find she had been moved into her bed. They stayed up celebrating on the dormitory floor so that Hannah wasn't left out though and they couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts to celebrate with the whole school.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

'Yes Mum' said Brian on the phone, 'we'll be coming to your house in the morning then we'll be going to Cassie's parent's house in the afternoon.' It was Christmas Eve and Brian couldn't believe they were still going over this; it had taken them a while to negotiate Christmas Day with both their sets of parents as it was but with Cassie's sister being sick at the moment they changed everything round so that they would be at her parents' house for Christmas dinner. Brian had never been to their house before as Cassie had always told him they lived abroad and now he knew that it's a wizarding house then he understood the reason for the white lie but it meant having to go there on Christmas Day as well as his own parents' house.

'Yes Mum, they did used to live abroad but they've moved back now' said Brian, still enduring a barrage of questions from his mum on the phone. 'No, I don't think you can invite yourselves around as well Mum, they're very private people, I've never even been there myself before.'

The conversation continued in that vein until Brian was able to convince his mum that they would be sticking to the arrangements they had made but only if they promised to come round on Boxing Day as well. He had reluctantly agreed, wishing he and Cassie could just have a day to themselves as they would both be back at work the day after Boxing Day; people in hospitals unfortunately didn't take Christmas off from being ill.

The next day they got up early, packed Brian's car up with presents and drove over to his parents' house. When his mum answered the door she already had a paper hat from inside a cracker perched on the top of her head and her special sequinned jumper which had a picture of a reindeer knitted into it. She wore the same jumper every year and it was starting to show as there were a few places now where there were threads hanging down where sequins had once been.

Martha greeted them on the doorstep with a big hug each and presented them with some homemade mince pies as soon as they had got in and sat down.

'It's alright Mum' said Brian. 'We had breakfast before we came round, it's still a bit early for mince pies.' He actually would have fancied a mince pie but he didn't want to fill up on food at his parents' house and then not be able to eat the food that Cassie's Mum would be making.

'How about you Cassie love?' Martha asked, offering the plate of mince pies to her. 'No thank you Martha' said Cassie before she patted her stomach and said 'I need to make sure I can still fit into that dress after all!' Making reference to the dress that Martha and Howard had paid for seemed to be a polite way to turn down the mince pies when in actual fact she just didn't like them, she never had.

'Well I'll pack some up in a box for you to take with you' said Martha, bustling back into the kitchen.

She continued to fuss over them whilst she made sure they were attended to in every possible way 'It _is_ Christmas' she kept saying at every suggested overindulgence, which included drinking bucks fizz at only half past nine in the morning.

After she'd finally settled down in one of the chairs on their avocado coloured three piece suite, with Howard in the other chair and Cassie and Brian sat together on the sofa, they exchanged presents. Brian was given a paisley tie which he thanked them warmly for but he knew would be getting shoved in the bottom of a drawer when they got home as he only ever wore a tie for occasions like weddings or funerals. They gave Cassie a medical book which she was absolutely thrilled with as it was all about muggle medicine and really great for her to take to St Mungo's hospital, but Martha and Howard didn't know that so they were very pleased their gift was so well received. Brian and Cassie had brought them a new power tool for Howard and a casserole dish for Martha which they both seemed to be pleased with.

Once they had settled and Howard had cleared away all the wrapping, the inevitable wedding talk began.

'So what have you still got left to do?' asked Martha.

'Not much really' said Cassie.

'Well what have you done so far?' asked Martha who was obviously desperate for the details so that she could "help" as much as possible.

Cassie and Brian looked at each other to come up with the list together. 'We've booked the venue' said Cassie, counting that on her fingers. 'We've told you the date' she said, adding another finger to her count.

'We've booked a registrar' said Brian and he saw the frown flicker briefly across his mum's face as she obviously wasn't happy that they weren't getting married in her church.

'We've ordered the dress' said Cassie with a nod of thanks to Martha. 'And we've told my parents what date it is too' she said adding a fifth finger to her count . She nearly listed that they had also booked someone from the Ministry to officiate as well but she managed to stop herself and she put her hands back down on her lap and smiled at Martha and Howard.

'Is that all?' asked Martha with her jaw hanging a little slackly.

'Er..' said Brian 'yeah, there's not much to do really' he said.

'Not much to do?' Martha asked incredulously. 'You need to book the flowers, order a cake, sort out your best man, get the suits ordered, get the bridesmaid dress, pick music, book caterers, book your evening DJ or band, and that's not even thinking about things like hair and make-up and shoes and favours and things!' Martha looked a little out of breath and seemed to be going a little red in the face as she listed it all.

'It'll be fine' said Brian, 'We've got plenty of time for that and we'll get most of sorted through the venue anyway.' Brian and Cassie weren't wanting anything over the top for their wedding so they were quite relaxed about it all. They had a venue booked and someone to marry them booked and they were the important things. Cassie wasn't even planning on getting a new dress and now she had that ordered as well so it all felt in hand at the moment but judging by Martha's ever reddening face, she didn't agree. Howard patted her hand to try to calm her down but she just snatched it away from the arm of the chair.

'We've got over five months yet Mum' said Brian, trying to defuse things but he just seemed to make Martha even angrier.

'Yes!' she cried. 'Exactly, you've only got about five months! All the good suppliers will get booked up and you won't be able to get anything you want. Have you thought about chair covers yet? What about the wedding car? You've got the honeymoon to book, you need to buy your rings, there's still so much! Cassie, are you not making lists of these things and getting them sorted?'

'Hold on Mum' said Brian firmly, 'we're both responsible for this, not just Cassie.' Cassie squeezed his knee in appreciation of standing up for her. 'We're going to go to a wedding show at the venue and we'll get most of the things booked then. We're having the wedding on a Friday so most of the suppliers will still be available and there'll always be someone who can do whatever we need, there's no-one we absolutely must have for anything or we'd have booked them already.'

'Maybe I should come round and help you with it' said Martha perking up a little.

'That's really not necessary Martha' said Cassie immediately, making sure Brian couldn't say yes before she said anything.

'Why don't you come to the wedding fair with us Mum' said Brian, 'then you can help us get everything booked while we're there and you can know we've got things sorted.'

'That's a great idea' said Howard, who had stayed well out of the conversation until that point but he obviously wanted to put an end to it now. 'You go along to the wedding fair and they'll appreciate your help then.'

'Alright' said Martha somewhat begrudgingly. 'Let's hope we can get everything booked there.'

They managed to move the conversation on to Brian's work and Cassie was quite evasive about her own work before they made their excuses and headed off to make their way to Cassie's parents' house.

They drove back to their house, got the presents together that they were taking and Brian opened the door to take them out to the car.

'Where are you going?' asked Cassie.

'Putting the presents in the car' said Brian. 'I assume we have to leave now, though actually I've no idea where they live! Have we got far to drive?'

'Shut the door' said Cassie, 'we're not driving, they live the other side of the country!'

'Oh!' said Brian, it hadn't occurred to him that they were going to get there any other way and when Cassie had said they didn't live abroad after all he'd just assumed they were local without thinking about it. He put the presents down in the front room and eyed the fireplace. 'I don't have to go in _that_ do I?' he asked, nodding towards the fireplace. It wasn't a thought he was particularly comfortable with.

'No' said Cassie. 'I'm pretty sure muggles can't use the floo network. I think we've got two choices so I'll let you decide' she said. 'I can either take you as a side-along as I apparate there, though I've never taken a muggle side-along, or we can catch the knight bus.'

'I have no idea what side-along appalation is' said Brian 'and I didn't think we had night buses round here, and it's not night time anyway. It's Christmas day, none of the buses will be running anyway.'

'It's the Knight Bus' said Cassie, 'Knight with a K.'

'Ok' said Brian, 'I still don't understand though, there's still no buses on Christmas Day'

'I've never actually checked if the Knight Bus runs on Christmas Day' said Cassie thoughtfully 'but I think it will be doing. It's a special bus service for wizards. If a witch or wizard stands at the curb and puts out their wand arm, the Knight Bus will appear and take them where they want to go, but it is a bit of a crazy ride.' Cassie had used the Knight Bus a couple of times when she was younger and she was pretty terrified whilst she was on it as it careered through the countryside at huge speed and seemed to go no slower through heavy inner city traffic! She didn't want to put Brian off though so she left out that part.

'Right' said Brian ponderously, 'and what about the side-along thingy you mentioned?'

'Side-along apparition' clarified Cassie. 'Apparition is when a witch or wizard uses their magic to disappear from where they are and appear somewhere different that they're concentrating on. Side-along apparition is being taken along for the ride without doing it yourself. There's limits to how far you can apparatus but Mum and Dad are plenty close enough for that.'

'You disappear from somewhere are appear somewhere else... so you teleport basically?' asked Brian with wonder. This was more science fiction than fairy tales now!

'Yeah I guess so' said Cassie who had only learnt about teleporting when Brian had made her watch Star Trek on the television with him.

'What does that feel like?' asked Brian warily, thinking it can't possibly be a pleasurable experience and wondering what happened if you didn't reappear right and you head was where your arm should be or something.

'Well' said Cassie, deciding she should be honest and set his expectations accordingly, 'it kind of feels like it sounds really. You get yanked through the space between the places and when you land you can feel quite sick.'

'I don't think I want to try that' said Brian, 'I think I'll stick to the bus, at least I know what to expect from a bus.' Brian then thought for a moment before saying 'If we're getting the bus then couldn't we just drive anyway?' Cassie laughed out loud and Brian wondered what he had said that was so funny,

'It's not like a muggle bus Bri!' she exclaimed. 'It's magical! It zooms through the traffic, it apparates to wherever it's needed, believe me, it's faster than driving a muggle car.'

'Ok, even better then' said Brian, 'we're definitely getting the bus.'

Cassie thought this was probably for the best as she wasn't sure if it was actually possible to side-along apparate a muggle and she was pretty sure Brian would hate if it it did work anyway, though the bus wouldn't be much better.

They got their things all together and they headed outside.

'We'd better head to a quieter road' said Cassie when they got outside, 'we don't want the muggles seeing the Knight Bus!' Cassie was pretty sure the Knight Bus couldn't be seen by muggles but they could and them disappearing as they stepped onto the bus wouldn't be good for her neighbours to see!

They turned right at the end of their road and walked on until the end where the houses stopped and the road turned into a footpath. It was at the end of the road, just before the footpath where they set down their bags, and Cassie stood at the edge of the pavement and gingerly stuck out her wand arm into the road. She snatched back her arm the very moment the triple-decker bright purple bus appeared.

'Are you alright?' asked Brian, grabbing hold of her as she stumbled away from the road. The Knight Bus came to an immediate and abrupt standstill next to them and the doors opened.

'I'm fine' said Cassie, 'it just gave me a shock that's all.'

'What did?' asked Brian puzzled.

'The Knight Bus of course' said Cassie, pointing to the massive and bright vehicle parked up next to them.

'It's here?' asked Brian and it dawned on Cassie.

'Of course!' she said. 'There's spells on it which stop muggles being able to see it, so you can't see it!'

'Can I still get on?' he asked, worried they were going to have to do the teleporting after all, which sounded like it was really cool in theory but he didn't like the sound of it in practice.

'Sure' she said, taking his arm. He picked up the bags and led him onto the bus. As soon as Brian was on board he could see it perfectly.

'Good afternoon and merry Christmas' said a chap who looked to be in his thirties. He was dressed in a bright purple uniform and he seemed to be very excited by getting new passengers which made Brian wonder if this service was actually used much.

'Merry Christmas Stan' said Cassie. 'We just find a seat do we?'

'Hapsolutely, you just sit where you like and I'll come and see to you in a minute' said the uniformed chap cheerfully. They went towards where the seats should be and there were armchairs instead of the usual bus seats, with Christmas decorations hanging from just about everywhere they could possibly be hung. There was a chandelier hanging down from one of the upper decks which was covered in holly and Christmas tree baubles. The armchairs were strange enough as it was but the chandelier was unlike anything he could possibly have expected to see on a bus ever in his life.

The bus was actually quite full as all the armchairs on the bottom level were occupied. They made their way up to the next level up and found that there was an unoccupied sofa at the front of the bus. Brian had always loved sitting at the front of the bus and see where they were going as a kid so he insisted they sit on that sofa. The bus then gave a great big jolt, all the armchairs and the sofa slid backwards on the floor, the chandelier which hung straight through the middle of the floor from the level above, swung backwards too, jingling as it did and the bus was somehow zooming down a country lane. Brian was trying to work out where they were and how they got there when the conductor from downstairs appeared next to them.

'So' he said happily, 'where are we taking you this fine Christmas Day?'

'To Harrogate please' said Cassie. 'Owl Cottage on Knox Lane.'

'Right you are' said the conductor. 'And are you wanting a Christmas tipple with that as well?' Cassie looked at Brian questioningly but his eyes were glued to the road in front of them which was speeding under them at about a hundred miles an hour.

'No thanks Stan' she replied. 'Just the tickets please.'

'Alright, that'll be one galleon and seven sickles then please' he said, holding out a ticket to her. Cassie got a purse out of her bag which she knew Brian had never seen but he was too busy staring at the road to get his first glimpse of wizard money.

Cassie paid Stan and they continued their journey after dropping off a wizard outside a village pub then they were tearing through the streets of central London at the same speed they had been zooming along the country lanes, with cars and buses jumping out of their way. Cassie couldn't look outside at all as it just made her feel sick but Brian wasn't able to look anywhere else. He had been terrified at first but now he was having the time of his life, fascinated by the way they could nip through the tiniest of gaps without even slowing down.

They made a couple more stops before the next big jolt took them to somewhere that Cassie recognised and she knew they were on their stop now.

'This is our stop' she said to Brian as they charged along the streets of Harrogate.'

'Our stop?' asked Brian absently. 'Oh! Right, yes, we have to get off don't we!' He had been enjoying himself so much he had forgotten that there was going to be a stop for them and they would have to get off.'

'Yes, this stop will be our one' repeated Cassie. 'So get the bags together, Mum's going to moan enough about us being too late since she wanted us there all day.'

They grabbed the bags and in no time at all the bus came to a sudden halt, causing the armchairs, the sofa and the chandelier to rush forwards as it did.

They made their way downstairs and thanked Stan as they stepped off the bus.

'Can we go on it again?' asked Brian, missing the crazy ride already.

'We'll be getting the Knight Bus home again' said Cassie, wishing she could look forward to it like he was going to be.

'And after that?' Brian asked eagerly.

'Well I guess next time we come and visit my parents we'll go on it again' replied Cassie

'Can we not just ride around on it?' he asked. 'Do they let you do that?'

'I don't know' said Cassie, 'I've never asked. Why don't you ask Stan on the way back?'

'Yeah' said Brian, 'I'll ask Stan.' Before they knew it they were stood at the front door of Cassie's parents.

Cassie took out her wand, knocked twice on the door before waving her wand and then opening it to go inside.

'They leave their door unlocked?' asked Brian astounded.

'No' said Cassie, taking her coat off. 'It was magically locked, and I magically unlocked it. It's a good way of making sure muggles don't come in.' She looked at Brian guiltily as he was just stepping over the threshold as she said that. 'You're welcome though of course' she added hastily before helping him get his coat off.

'You're here at last!' said Romilda as they walked into the living room. Cassie glanced at the clock on the wall and noted that they were actually ten minutes earlier than they said they'd try and arrive by so her mum's implication that they should have been there much earlier wasn't lost on her and she realised it was going to be one of _those_ days.

'Hi Mum, Dad' said Cassie as she walked into the room. Then she saw Hannah in a wheelchair next to the sofa. 'Han-Han!' she exclaimed, rushing over to give her sister a big hug. She had known that Hannah was going to be in a wheelchair when they saw her and she had heard, in minute detail from her mum, what had happened to her, but seeing her in the wheelchair was still such a shock.

'Hi Romilda, Augustus' said Brian as he followed Cassie into the room. 'Hi Hannah' he said when he could see her after Cassie let her go from the huge hug. 'How are you feeling?'

'I'm really good' said Hannah cheerfully. Cassie raised an eyebrow at her. 'Honestly, I don't know why they're making me stay in the chair, I feel great!'

'You wouldn't feel so great if you were having to move around' said Cassie. 'Professor McGonagall took you to St Mungo's didn't she?'

'Yeah, she thought I was going to be better than I was by the time we got back so she took me there herself, I think she scared some of the healers!'

Cassie laughed, that sounded like the headmistress she had known alright. 'Well they know what they're doing there you so need to do what they say.' Cassie realised she was using the same tone of voice she used on her own patients when they weren't quite behaving.

'Yeah yeah' said Hannah rolling her eyes but grinning at her big sister.

'Can I take a look?' asked Cassie tentatively.

'Yeah sure' said Hannah, yanking up her top without a care to reveal her side. 'Everyone else has so you may as well.'

Cassie knelt down next to Hannah to take a closer look. The wound was healing well but it still looked like it was fresh, it was obviously a powerful and dangerous spell which had inflicted this damage and Hannah was lucky to have survived. 'And it was Professor McGonagall who was first to treat you?' Cassie asked.

'So I'm told' said Hannah. 'I was out like a light so I wouldn't know.' Hannah heard herself speaking and realised she was sounding a lot braver than she had felt but the boy responsible was disqualified and she was ok now so there was nothing to be worried about now.

'You were lucky' said Cassie. 'A lesser witch or wizard wouldn't have been able to help you and they probably wouldn't have realised until too late.' She looked up into her little sister's eyes, expressing her love and worry in that one luck and Hannah lost the bravado she was evoking and looked almost sheepishly back at Cassie.

'I've learnt some muggle techniques which might aid the healing' said Cassie, knowing what was coming as she said it.

'You're not going to butcher your sister!' exclaimed Romilda. 'No hacking and slashing like the muggles in this family!'

'It isn't like that Mum' said Cassie, knowing she was fighting a losing battle.

'We don't hack and slash' said Brian affronted, but he said it quietly as he couldn't bite his tongue but he didn't want to have a fight with Romilda. Cassie shot a look at his which he knew instantly meant that he shouldn't even try defending them as it was a losing battle.

'I could just try a couple of things and if it doesn't help then there's nothing lost' suggested Cassie as one last feeble attempt.

'Absolutely not!' said Romilda, giving Hannah no choice in the matter when she was quite open to the new things that Cassie had been learning; she admired her older sister a lot and respected what she was doing, unlike the majority of her own colleagues at St Mungo's. Hannah had heard a few murmurs about her sister when she had been taken to the wizarding hospital and they realised who she was and there were some pretty uncomplimentary things said which had left Hannah fuming.

'It's ok' said Hannah. 'I'm healing fine and I'll be out of this thing in no time at all.' She was a little less confident that she sounded but she knew she would be up and about soon enough and in the meantime she got to have a nice sit down at least, even if it did mean she had a sore bum each day.

Cassie gave her little sister another hug and couldn't believe how brave she was being, maybe she should have been a Gryffindor instead she wondered. She saw that Brian was still loitering next to the doorway and remembered that he had never been here before so he was in his super-polite mode and not wanting to go anywhere without an invitation to do so.

'Come in properly Bri' Cassie said to him, waving him towards her as she stood back up.

'Oh yes Brian' said Romilda, 'do have a seat.' Romilda pulled a wand from the pocket of the apron she was wearing, waved it and a big squishy armchair covered in a flowery pattern appeared in the space in the living room. Brian literally jumped when the armchair appeared, he had been totally unprepared for furniture just appearing out of nowhere and it frightened the life out of him. Cassie gave him a reassuring smile and he perched himself down on the very front of the armchair seat, expecting it to disappear from beneath him at any moment. Cassie came over and plonked herself confidently on the arm of the chair and this made Brian relax a little about it potentially disappearing.

'Why don't you make furniture like this appear instead of us using those camping chairs?' Brian asked Cassie quietly.

'Because they would fill up the living room so we couldn't move and I'd only be sad when they vanished by the next day' she replied.

Brian stiffened on hearing that the chair would vanish, gripping the arms.

'Don't worry' said Cassie smiling at him. 'This thing will be here long after we leave, they don't vanish that quickly. Brian tried to smile at this but found he was too on edge to be able to smile.

'Tea everyone?' asked Romilda to the room and she was greeted with a chorus of 'Yes please' from everyone. She went out of the room and came back a minute later, holding out her wand and with a teapot, five mugs, a milk jug and a sugar bowl floating along in the air in front of her as she walked smoothly back into the room and they landed with barely a sound on the table before the teapot then lifted back up and poured tea into each mug whilst the milk jug started pouring milk into each mug and sugar lumps plopped in after it. 'Milk and sugar Brian?' Romilda asked him and he just nodded in reply, transfixed by the tea which was serving itself. Once all the teas were poured, each mug floated away from the table to come to rest in mid-air in front of the person it was for. Brian snatched his mug out of the air very quickly, afraid it would fall and land on him otherwise.

When they were drinking the tea, Brian realised that he could hear the sound of vegetables being peeled and chopped coming from the kitchen but everyone was in the living room and he realised that, like the teapot, the vegetables must be preparing themselves! He could understand why Cassie wasn't very good at the muggle ways of cooking when this was how she had been brought up to cook.

They exchanged presents, though Brian wasn't sure what the cream in a tin that Romilda and Augustus had given him was but he was sure Cassie would explain when they were home. Hannah spent quite a while telling them about the duelling competition she was in at school. Brian understood this to be like sword fighting but with wands and spells and was apparently very dangerous judging by the injury she had suffered. She must be very good though as it turns out that she is the team captain for the team representing the whole school and the competition is an international one which impressed Brian though he couldn't understand how she could be so brave to fight people with magic at her age.

She told them all about the trip she had to Beauxbatons which is a wizarding school in France by all accounts and the whole thing sounded fantastical.

It was whilst they were eating the Christmas dinner that the subject of the wedding finally cropped up.

'You'll be getting Hannah's dress made soon then' said Romilda. It wasn't a question other than an expectation of them telling her when they would be doing this.

'We'll be what?' replied Cassie.

'Hannah will have to have a dress made for her of course' said Romilda matter of fact. 'She's bridesmaid, she'll have to look the part. I know an excellent dressmaker in Godric's Hollow actually, she does things for muggles too so you'll have no problems there. I'll make an appointment for you and you can go and see her when you have a day off. What colour would you like Hannah?'

Cassie was a bit floored and not getting an opportunity to get a word in whilst her mum just took over arrangements and it felt like her own dress with Martha all over again.

Hannah looked at Cassie for an answer to what colour she wanted. 'What colour do you want me in?' asked Hannah to Cassie. 'What colour are you wearing?'

'I was going to have purple' said Cassie. 'I've got a really lovely purple dress at home already I was kind of saving for it.'

'Oh yes!' said Hannah. 'I remember you getting that, it's lovely!'

'Well it's not my dress now' said Cassie. 'Brian's mum took me dress shopping and she's bought me a dress. It's really really lovely but I really didn't need it!'

'So what colour is it?' asked Hannah.

Cassie looked at Brian. 'I don't think I'm allowed to say in front of Brian' she said. 'Martha, that's Brian's mum, was really intense about not mentioning a single detail in front of him.'

'I really don't mind' said Brian. 'As far as I'm concerned, that tradition is about the groom seeing the bride on the morning of the wedding, nothing to do with him seeing the dress or knowing anything about it, so go ahead, though I would like some surprises of course' he said smiling at her.

'Ok' said Cassie grinning at Hannah now, it feeling a little like when they were younger and they would talk about their perfect wedding. 'It's gold, like liquid gold, absolutely gorgeous.'

'Ooooh' said Hannah excitedly. 'That sounds so elegant.'

'Martha seemed to think that the bride couldn't wear anything but white or almost white' said Cassie. 'So I think gold was a good enough compromise from purple for her.' Hannah laughed in agreement. 'So maybe you should wear purple' said Cassie. 'Maybe we can adjust the dress I was going to wear for you.'

'Really?' asked Hannah, surprised and excited. 'That's a gorgeous dress, I'd love to wear it!'

Brian wasn't very interested in the talk of dresses but he did find it entertaining to look at the expression on Romilda's face as Cassie and Hannah made their own plans despite her trying to foist her plans onto them. She actually started turning red by the time they'd arranged for Cassie to bring the dress around the following day and Brian found himself having to hold in a little laugh at the sight.

Rominda managed to turn the conversation back to other wedding plans soon enough though.

'I've had a lot of people who we're inviting complaining that the wedding is on a Friday you know' she said, chiding her daughter. 'I think we should move it to the Saturday and have it here. We can put a marquis out in the garden and it would be so much easier.'

Cassie raised her eyebrows at her mum wondering why she was having to have this conversation with her again.

'Really Mum?' said Cassie. 'You can't see any problems with that?'

'Well Edina is having her daughter's wedding at her house in May' she said. 'I couldn't very well tell her you're having a muggle wedding could I, so I said you'll probably be doing the same.'

'But I _am_ having a muggle wedding Mum' said Cassie exasperatedly. 'And you can tell everyone that, there's nothing wrong with it!'

'You should hear about the things Edina's daughter is having' said Romilda, somehow trying to justify her reaction. 'It's going to have so many beautiful things you just can't have with a muggle wedding.' She looked at Brian with an accusatory expression as though he was denying her some great thing by marrying her daughter and he realised he probably was as she had probably been planning out her daughter's wedding in her head for a long time and it was always a magical wedding, but she'd have to save that for Hannah when her day came, he wasn't going to give up Cassie for Romilda's idea of a wedding.

'You know the answer on this Mum, I'm not budging, it's a muggle wedding' said Cassie firmly.

'Well' said Romilda and Cassie sighed. 'I was thinking about a nice string quartet. I've been practising with some transfigured instruments and I think I've managed to work the spell pretty well now, I can get all four of them playing and sounding nice now.'

'Are you kidding Mum?' asked Cassie. 'How do you think four instruments playing themselves are going to fit into a muggle wedding?'

'Don't worry Cassandra' said Romilda, 'I've thought of that. They can be in the room next door so then everyone can hear them but the muggles won't see them.'

'We can't do that Mum' said Cassie. 'What if a muggle walks into the room? And no-one has a string quartet at their wedding and hides them in another room, people would think something really weird was going on.'

'We'd just lock the door and put a muggle-repelling charm on the room' said Romilda.

'We can't just lock off a room in a muggle hotel, they need their rooms' said Cassie losing patience. 'I said no, I'm sorry you've been practising but it's really not possible.'

Romilda had several more helpful suggestions like that over the course of their Christmas dinner and not a single one of them was something they could actually use at a muggle wedding. Brian wondered if she was suggesting things she knew couldn't work just to make him feel bad about Cassie not being able to have a wedding like normal witches and wizards did but when he told Cassie that when they got home she said that she would probably be have been like that no matter who she was marrying and she just had to make drama where there wasn't any.

The rest of the day went fairly smoothly but they were exhausted by the time they left, though Brian's excitement at travelling on the Knight Bus again perked him up no end. By the time they got the Knight Bus home the armchairs and sofa had been replaced with brass bedsteads and Brian even had a cup of hot chocolate, though Cassie looked like she would be sick when it was offered to her.

Overall it was the most eventful and memorable Christmas Day Brian had ever had and despite all that it still seemed to manage to be full of the typical family tiffs like any other year, just this year was with magic too!


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

It was the first day back at Hogwarts after Christmas and the first day that Hannah had returned to Hogwarts since the competition at Beauxbatons. The rest of the team had already returned to school just in time to leave for the Christmas break so there had been very little time for people to hear what had happened from the mouths of those that had been there but owls had been working overtime over Christmas and the whole school seemed to have a good idea about all the drama of the competition.

When Hannah hobbled into the Hufflepuff common room, only recently having stopped using the wheelchair and being uncertain enough on her feet to be using crutches a lot of the time, it was the day before lessons restarted. As soon as she arrived she was practically mobbed by all the Hufflepuffs there wanting to hear about everything that had happened from her, to look after her and to find out how she was doing. Hannah had never been a particularly prominent member of the house, with her best friends being in other houses so she was often seeing them in the communal areas rather than hanging out in the common room, but today she felt like a superstar.

She told them all what had happened during the competition and then she spent twice as long again answering all the questions that everyone had about the competition. Then she told them all about the trip itself and the Hogwarts bus and Beauxbatons and again she was stunned by how many questions people had. It was nearly midnight by the time they finally let her go to up to her room where she hadn't even unpacked any of her trunk yet.

She had spent all of the Christmas period with her mum fussing about and insisting she do everything her way so feeling revered by her housemates was quite a remarkable contrast. The hospital visits over Christmas hadn't been any fun either but she had been able to see her big sister Cassie and meet her brother-in-law-to-be which had been great. She was even going to wear a stunning dress that her sister was going to wear as her bridal dress for her bridesmaid dress and she couldn't be more excited about Cassie's wedding, it was going to be the highlight of her year, even more so than the duelling competition, even if they won it!

By the time she went down to the great hall for breakfast the following morning, she'd had time to ready herself for the same questions from everyone who wasn't in her house so when she hobbled her way into the Great Hall to sit with Maggie who was waiting for her there, she wasn't surprised by all the people who kept crowding round to ask her to tell them all about the duelling. She had barely managed to say more than 'Hi' to Maggie since she sat down when she found she had finished her breakfast and needed to get ready for her first class of the day which was Potions.

'Don't worry' said Maggie as she helped Hannah walk out of the Great Hall, 'we had the same thing when we got back to school too so I know what it's like. Of course we had it spread over the four of us though so this is a bit more intense!' That hadn't occurred to Hannah, she'd assumed the others must have had exactly the same thing but of course there were four of them for people to question then.

She continued to be questioned by everyone she saw through her lessons that day and she found it increasingly difficult to concentrate on her lessons with reliving the duelling competition all the time and the pain in the side steadily increasing as the day went on as she found herself having to strain to get to her different classes in time when they were so far apart and she was walking so much slower than she usually would be.

By the time it got to the evening meal in the Great Hall, Hannah just wanted to curl up in bed and go to sleep, but at least she would be able to have the support of her friends while they were there and the questioning was dying off by that point as most people had managed to see her and accost her during the day, or the night before in the case of Hufflepuff House.

Before the food arrived once they were sat down in the Great Hall, a terrified looking first year approached Hannah and her friends and held out a note for each of them. Hannah opened up the parchment with her name on it.

Miss Crescent,

Please visit my office after your meal to discuss the next stages for the Inter-School Duelling Competition.

I believe you know that I am particularly fond of tabby cats.

Sincerely,

Professor Minerva McGonagall

Hannah looked around at her friends to see if their notes said the same thing. 'We're off to see McGonagall after we've had our tea then' said Hannah to her friends.

'Yep, that's what mine says' said Maggie

'Mine too' said Silv.

'And mine' said Dana, 'but what do you think she means by the next stages? I thought there was only one more stage to the competition, when we duel Durmstrang.'

'Yeah, that is a bit strange' said Hannah.

'I think she must be talking about our training schedule' said Maggie.

'I hope she doesn't change the team captain' said Silv, smiling at Hannah. 'I thought you were a great captain.'

'Thanks Silv' said Hannah gratefully. 'I wasn't sure what was expected of me really, and I wasn't even conscious for the ending!'

'You were great' said Maggie, giving her a hug from the chair next to her. Hannah winced a little as a stabbing pain shot through her side and Maggie let go of her apologising. 'I'm so sorry Han, I didn't meant to hurt you, I wasn't thinking!'

'It's alright' said Hannah laughing but she was holding her side whilst the pain died down to the dull ache which seemed to be there the whole time. 'Do you think Lawrence will agree though?' asked Hannah, very aware of the fact that the team wasn't wholly made up of their group. She looked over to the Slytherin table and saw that the same first year had delivered his note from Professor McGonagall too.

'Of course he won't' said Dana grinning, 'but I reckon all of us plus McGonagall will overrule him any day!'

They ate their food quickly, a tasty beef stew with dumplings which felt particularly warming and wholesome as Hannah gobbled it down. Just as they were finishing their jam roly poly and custard, Lawrence sidled over to where they were sat.

'Shall we head there together then?' asked Lawrence.

'Hi Lawrence' said Hannah, noting his lack of a greeting. 'Yeah, we're just about finished so we can head up there now.'

'I hope this doesn't take too long' said Silv as they were getting up from the benches at the table, 'I've got loads of homework to do tonight.'

'Is any of it due tomorrow?' asked Dana.

'No' said Silv sounding confused.

'Then you're alright then' Dana said.

'But, I'll get more homework and I can't do it all…' Silv trailed off as Dana was already striding towards the door and Hannah knew it was a lost cause for Silv to argue with Dana, Dana always left her homework to the last possible moment. Hannah was pretty bad for that herself but Silv liked to get it done as soon as they were assigned it; she couldn't relax knowing she had homework she was meant to be doing she would tell them.

They regrouped in the entrance hall and headed up the moving staircases to the third floor to find the entrance to Professor McGonagall's office.

Once they were at the large stone gargoyle which concealed the entrance to the headmistress's office they stopped. Lawrence reached the gargoyle first but once he was there he turned back to the girls and waited for them to do something. Hannah realised that he had probably never been to Professor McGonagall's office before so he probably didn't even realise he needed a password.

'Tabby cats' said Hannah confidently to the gargoyle when she was stood in front of it.

The gargoyle sprang to one side revealing a wall which parted in the middle to reveal the spiral staircase behind it which was revolving to rise upwards.

Hannah glanced sideways at Lawrence who had his eyebrows raised as he watched the entrance be revealed but he soon regained his confident looking demeanour as though he had known exactly what would happen.

They climbed onto the spiral stone steps and allowed them to take them higher and higher up the tower to Professor McGonagall's office. Once they stopped revolving, Maggie helping Hannah to get up the last of them, up to a large wooden door with a griffon-shaped brass knocker and Hannah knocked three times with the knocker and waited for a response, feeling strangely nervous.

Professor McGonagall opened the door whilst sitting behind the desk in her office. 'Enter' she said as the door swung open.

They made their way inside with Hannah still leaning on Maggie on their way in.

'Do sit down Hannah' said Professor McGonagall, waving her wand so that a leather chair appeared next to the desk. Maggie helped Hannah lower herself into the chair and she found she was really feeling the toll of a long and physical day and she was frustrated that she wasn't back to her usual self again yet.

Professor McGonagall waved her wand and matching chairs appeared for all of them forming a semi circle on their side of the desk. They all sat down and Hannah couldn't help but feel that they were going to get told off though she knew she hadn't done anything wrong.

'Thank you for coming' said Professor McGonagall. 'I appreciate you will all have homework you need to be working on as you are all in your N.E.W.T. years. Firstly, I want to congratulate you all again on the victory you achieved at Beauxbatons.' Hannah grinned as she was still so proud of them all for what they had achieved. 'You also were an excellent example of the school with your responsible spellcasting which in no way endangered the lives or had the potential to endanger the lives of anyone, which couldn't be said for the team you were duelling against and unfortunately the effects of that are still being suffered today.' She indicated Hannah as she said this and Hannah felt herself go a little red. 'So congratulations once again.

'Secondly, we must look forwards to the second and last round of the competition' Professor McGonagall continued, 'and I would like to discuss the topic of the team captain as the first item.' The students looked around at each other, or rather, the students all looked at Hannah and she looked back at each of them.

'Do any of you feel that Hannah was the wrong choice for team captain or feel that they would have performed the role more competently?'

'Well' said Lawrence slightly hesitantly. 'I was expecting that if such a role existed that I would be given it, so I was surprised when you said it was Hannah.'

'Yes' said Professor McGonagall, 'I suspected you might feel that way. And what does anyone else have to say?'

Hannah looked at her friends waiting to see what they would say about her leadership. She didn't think she was a great team captain but she thought she had done a fairly good job and they had won of course, but that didn't mean she was necessarily the best one at the role so she was interested to see what the others thought and she noticed Dana was avoiding her gaze.

'I think Hannah did brilliantly' said Maggie, grinning at Hannah. 'I know I wouldn't have done better.'

'Yeah' said Silv, 'I think she did really great, I think she's a really good team captain.'

'And you Miss Dawson?' asked Professor McGonagall. 'What do you think of your team captain and the alternatives available?'

Dana looked at Hannah and looked at Lawrence and Hannah realised that she was considering which of the two would make a better team captain. She understood if people thought they could do better than her, but she didn't think Lawrence was the most suitable one of the role, if it had to be someone else then she thought Maggie or Dana would be best but Lawrence would be the bottom of her list, he didn't exactly posses the best interpersonal skills, and she found herself quite disappointed with her friend for considering it.

'I think I would have done a good job' said Dana, seeming to not want to choose between them.

'I agree' said Hannah, 'I think you would be good at it.' Everyone knew that Professor McGonagall used to be the head of Gryffindor House so Hannah fully expected that Dana would be made the new team captain now but she genuinely thought that Dana would do a good job, she was always confident and really fought for them all.

'That's interesting' said Professor McGonagall thoughtfully. 'But I believe that I was correct when I first assigned the role to Miss Crescent. Unless something changes then the role of team captain will remain as hers.' Lawrence threw himself back in his chair with his arms folded, obviously very disappointed, and he scowled at Hannah.

'Mr Lancaster' said Professor McGonagall sternly, 'you must respect the decision I have made and work with your team and your team captain or you will find yourself replaced.'

Hannah wasn't sure that was the best approach to take with Lawrence but she was glad of the support in any case and she just hoped that Lawrence would accept her as the captain and work with her.

'Next, I would like to discuss the training' said Professor McGonagall, firmly closing the subject of team captaincy by moving along her agenda. 'I believe that weekly training will still be necessary as we carried out last term, with that increasing to bi-weekly in the run up to the final round of the competition.' Hannah saw Silv and Maggie's eyes go wide when they heard they would be training twice a week and she knew they were worried about their study for their N.E.W.T.s as that was usually at the forefront of their time planning. 'You will be working with myself and also Professor Longbottom in your training sessions as that seemed to work well whilst we were in situ at Beauxbatons.'

The group nodded, they had enjoyed working with both of the professors, with Professor Longbottom being more casual with them as a contrast to Professor McGonagall's sternness but both of them being passionate about duelling and offering advice from different points of view. Professor McGonagall, whom Hannah doubted much got passed, had obviously noticed the looks on Maggie and Silv's faces when she had mentioned two practices a week as she said 'I'm sure you are wondering when the next round of the competition will be and how that will fit into your end of year exams.'

Maggie and Silv exchanged a look and smiled sheepishly at Professor McGonagall before Maggie said 'Yes please.'

'Well the next round of the competition' said Professor McGonagall, 'will take place on Wednesday the thirteenthof March.' Hannah's eyes widened at how soon the date was. 'And will take place between Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, at the Durmstrang Institute.' Hannah breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that they had a couple of months longer then to prepare for their own final round.

'The final round' continued Professor McGonagall, 'will take place here at Hogwarts on Friday the sixthof June. The school will be excused from lessons on that day in order to spectate the event and you will be allowed to take your exams two weeks later than the other students to allow for your participation in the competition.'

The sixth of June thought Hannah, that date rang a bell but she couldn't think why. What was happening on the sixth of June?

'Oh!' said Hannah rather louder than she intended with her hand clasped over her mouth. 'That's the day my sister gets married!'


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

There was only about two months until Brian and Cassie were due to get married and they were sorting out all the bits and pieces that Martha and Romilda kept insisting they needed to do.

'Ok, let's look at the list again' said Cassie. She was completely drained by this point as she had been working hard recently as an outbreak of dragon pox meant that St Mungo's had asked her to work extra hours to help out and the time she thought she would have to do these things gradually over a few months had disappeared without her even realising it.

'We've got the venue, the registrar, the dresses, the suits, the cake and the flowers all sorted' he said wearily, reading from the list his Mum had given them and kept referring to every time he spoke to her. 'So that leaves the music, the food, the vows, the favours, the invitations, the table plan, your hair and make-up, your accessories and Hannah's accessories.'

'Is that all?' asked Cassie sarcastically. She just didn't have the energy for trying to sort this out on the first day off she had had in about two months.

Brian turned over the page and sighed. 'Actually no, that isn't all. The toasts, the gifts, the photographer, the decorations and the guest book, the chair covers, the transportation' he said with no enthusiasm at all in his voice.

'How are we even going to have a photographer?' asked Cassie. 'If we get a muggle photographer then we'll never have proper wedding pictures but if we get a wizard photographer then we'll never be able to show any of your family and friends the wedding photos.'

'Proper pictures?' asked Brian raising one eyebrow. 'So the photos we have of the two of us that I've taken, they're not proper are they not?'

'That's not what I mean' said Cassie. It was such an effort to even talk about this, she really wasn't in the mood to have Brian getting upset that muggle photos aren't as good as wizard photos. 'But every bride has photos that move' she said, remembering some of her favourite ones from weddings she had been to and her own parents' wedding. 'I wanted one where you're spinning me round in the air' she said, 'and one where we're all running towards the camera. And what about the first kiss once you're married, you can't capture that properly unless you're actually capturing the first kiss.' She found it difficult to explain how important it is to have these memories captured properly. She found muggle photos quite unnerving in fact, the way they never moved and the people just looked like statues in them.

'I suppose you want to float down the aisle and be showered in fairy dust as you walk like your Mum suggested as well' said Brian, fed up at hearing from Romilda how inferior the wedding was going to be without magic without Cassie starting on that as well.

'Don't be ridiculous' said Cassie, annoyed at her Mum for intentionally suggesting things she knew weren't possible.

'I'm ridiculous now!' said Brian, feeling like Cassie was just always talking down to him.

'No no' said Cassie, just frustrated with Brian now. 'I'm not saying that and you know it.'

'No, I get it' said Brian, 'I'm a muggle, I'm not "proper" and you're not going to have the wedding you, or anyone know you, wants with me.'

Cassie just shook her head in frustration, why was he making this so difficult?

'I'll make it simple for you' said Brian, clearly seeing that Cassie wasn't going to have a life she saw as the right kind of life as long as she was stuck with a muggle. 'Let's not bother having a muggle wedding. Let's just not bother getting married. Get those wizards round and wipe my memory, just forget everything.'

He calmly stood up, walked out of the room, grabbed his coat and his car keys and he left the house.

Cassie banged her fist on the table in frustration, then instantly regretted it as pain shot through her hand. That was enough to push her over the edge and she burst into tears sat at the kitchen table.

Her first instinct once she got her head back together was to head off on the floo network and see her mum but there was no way she could take any "I told you so"s from her right now, so she went upstairs to talk to her recently neglected owl Tilly.

'What is wrong with him Tilly?' Cassie asked her little tawny owl. 'Does he really think I don't want to marry him because it means having to have a muggle wedding?' She paced the room and Tilly, who had been sat on her perch sleeping, opened one eye to look at her. 'I mean I wouldn't have spent the last three years with him if I didn't want to be with a muggle.' Tilly simply watched Cassie walking back and forth in front of her. 'I had to go through so much for all that time to keep the fact I'm a witch from him then have strangers listen in whilst I told him the truth, being terrified that he'd leave me because of it, but because I think wizard photographs are better he's just gone and left.' Cassie stopped pacing and looked at Tilly. 'How is that right?' she asked her owl. 'What am I supposed to do? Tell him that everything that's muggle is better than everything that's magical? I mean it's not like I'm not compromising, I'm doing everything to make this wedding what his family expects and what he wants with none of the magical stuff I'd have had otherwise, but he flies off the handle when I even mention that wizard photographs are better? It's ridiculous!' she said throwing her hands up in the air. Tilly flapped her wings on her perch in indignation before Cassie collapsed on the futon and broke down into tears.

Brian slammed the car door after he had climbed in, started the car and revved it a few timed before he set off from the house. He was so angry he could barely think. Cassie knew full well that the only way they were going to be able to have a wedding with any of his family or friends there was to have a muggle wedding yet she couldn't help herself from pointing out how terrible it was to have muggle photographs instead of wizarding ones. As if Romilda's constant comments about what other people had had at their weddings or why isn't she does this or that magical thing wasn't bad enough. He took a deep breath and he headed for the motorway to try and speed through his anger.

If she didn't want a muggle wedding then why was she even with him? He had always felt inferior to start with since she is a doctor and he is a nurse, he was proud of his profession but he knew the doctors often looked down on them and he couldn't help but feel inferior when they were talking about their days, even though he knew he made a tremendous difference to the lives of the patients he nurses. Then to find out she's actually a witch, and on top of that she's a doctor at a magical hospital _as well_ as his hospital, and could do all manner of amazing magical spells, well he wondered why she was with him at all, let alone why she had agreed to marry him. Maybe she had only said yes to avoid an embarrassing scene in the restaurant he wondered. Maybe marrying a muggle was all a big game and she was just having a bit of fun.

He sped past cars and lorries and he zoomed along the motorway over the speed limit, almost wishing for a police car to stop him. Did she see him as one big joke? Was telling him that she's a witch all part of the fun? He couldn't see any other reason why she was with him.

His tears began to obscure his vision and he decided to pull in at a service station as the sensible side of him told him it wasn't worth having an accident for. He pulled up in the car park with the intention of going into the Little Chef for a coffee but he just broke down into sobs sat at the wheel. He just wanted her to be happy at the end of the day he thought. Nothing ever made him happier than her being happy. He felt so guilty that she wasn't getting the wedding she had probably always dreamed of because he's a muggle. She probably wouldn't even have the life she had always dreamed of, he was bound to hold her back. Having kids would even be harder with him as they would have all the lying about where the kids would be going to school and all the stress of hiding their magic when they were growing up as Cassie had explained that it could manifest at times without the child even realising it when they were young. He could never make her happy.

Cassie blew her nose yet again and she forced herself to get a grip. 'I'm being selfish' she said to Tilly, who was trying to sleep again on her perch. 'I knew I had to have a muggle wedding, why did I even say anything at all about wizarding photographs?' she asked her owl. Tilly fluffed up her feathers at Cassie but otherwise remained silent on the subject. 'How have I been so stupid?' she asked. She got up and cleaned all the tears from her face and blew her nose until it seemed to have dried up. She went through to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked awful, he eyes were bloodshot, her hair was a mess and her face somehow looked older and it hung in sadness. 'I'm a mess' she said to herself. 'Why would be even want to be with me anyway?' She washed her face and sorted out her hair and she wondered what to do next. She had no idea where Brian had gone or how to get in touch with him, she only hoped that he would come back.

Then the idea struck her, she would make him a cake for when he got back. She would use muggle cooking things to bake him a muggle cake in a muggle way, and he would know how much she loves him when she welcomed him back with her muggle cake. She headed off to the kitchen and started to bake.

Brian's tears eventually ran out. He was glad they kept a box of tissues in the car as he had nearly used them all up while he was sat there. What had the argument even really been about he asked himself. They had thought about photographers and Cassie had said how much better the magical photos are, and they absolutely are, he would love to have wedding photos like that. So what were they doing arguing about it? They would need muggle photos to show his muggle friends and family so they could book a muggle photographer and one of Cassie's friends could take the magical photos of them, there was no reason in the world why a witch or wizard couldn't just take photos of them as well and then they'd have both. Why had they not just said that when they talked about it he wondered. Because the wedding has just become a huge stress he realised, not least because both of their mothers had very strong opinions on how things should be when neither of them knew everything about how it had to be and he and Cassie hadn't had any quality time together for months. When he had proposed to her, it had been the happiest day of his life, and he was sure, at the time anyway, that it was the happiest of his too. They had talked later about how relieved and indeed jubilant she had been when she had finally told him her big secret and he had been so happy when they could finally live together, and yet when their wedding was now just a couple of months away they were barely seeing each other and now fighting when they finally did have time together.

It was all his fault he realised. He shouldn't have reacted the way he did and certainly not over something that they both agreed on and that there was an easy compromise for, he had been a complete idiot. He had to beg her to forgive him he realised, and he got out the car and bought the biggest and nicest looking bunch of flowers that was for sale at the motorway services before heading back home determined to make everything better.

The kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it. Every surface was covered in cake bowls and discarded packets, there was flour and cake mix dotted around on the surfaces and even on the floor, but Cassie had managed to get the cake mix into a cake tin and she was just wondering how she could tell if the oven was hot enough to be able to put it in yet when she heard the front door open. Her heart leapt into her mouth as she was excited that Brian was back and she could apologise and show him the cake she had made for him, but she was also terrified that he was still angry and had only come back to pack his things or maybe argue some more. Either way, she decided that it was probably best if he didn't see the state of the kitchen at the moment so she shoved the cake into the oven and rushed out of the kitchen to go and see him.

She arrived at speed into the hallway just as Brian was closing the door behind him.

'I'm so sorry' she said at once. 'I'm an idiot, I'm completely insensitive, I was totally wrong!'

Brian turned round and Cassie saw the big bunch of flowers he was holding and a feeling of relief swept over her; she felt tears spring up into her eyes again but these were tears of relief and happiness.

'I've baked you a cake' she said simply as she looked at the flowers.

'I'm so sorry Cassie' said Brian, pushing the flowers into her but it took her a few seconds to grab onto them as she seemed dazed. 'I was totally unreasonable and utterly wrong. Can you forgive me?'

'Forgive _you_?' asked Cassie, who had convinced herself that everything that entirely her fault and was thrown by Brian declaring himself the sole offender. 'Can _you_ forgive _me_?' she asked him, the tears filling her vision but not yet spilling down her cheeks.

'You did nothing wrong' he said, grabbing her in a huge hug and picking her up. 'I love you Cassandra Crescent.'

'I love you too' she replied 'Does this mean we're ok again?' she said through the hug, her voice breaking a little as she said those words.

'We're perfect' said Brian and the tears did run down her cheeks then and she didn't care, all was right with the world again.

Brian was a little less impressed when they went to start going through the wedding list again he saw the mess in the kitchen but when she explained what she'd done he was so touched at her thought and effort that he helped clear up the mess with her, the muggle way.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

The Durmstrang students had arrived at Hogwarts at the weekend on a huge masted boat which had appeared out of the great lake from underwater like a submarine or a sea monster. The students which they brought were all male and all of them wore thick furred cloaks and Hannah was sure they all looked like they were more like twenty years-old than their age. Most of the girls in the school had been swooning over the Durmstrang students since their arrival and they had been eating in the Great Hall each day with people scrabbling over the seats next to them on the long house tables, the girls desperate to get a few words with them and somehow manage to make the Durmstrang boys fall for them instantly, and the boys trying to become bigger and tougher by association.

Hannah and her friends had tried introducing themselves on a couple of occasions since they arrived but the other students had managed to block their way. Hannah was determined that at some point this evening they would introduce themselves though as it was only two days until the competition and she didn't need anything more hanging over her than she already had.

She had begged Professor McGonagall to change the date of the final of the competition but she had told her that it was out of her hands, the date set by agreement between the ministries of the three countries involved. She had said she needed to quit the team but her friends had all begged her to stay and Professor McGonagall had even told her that the chances for Hogwarts winning would be severely reduced if she was not a part of the team. Hannah had told her mum as soon as she had found out that the final was on the same day as Cassie's wedding and that she couldn't possibly miss either of them and her mum had concocted a plan for her.

Hannah had confirmed the timings of the competition with Professor McGonagall and they were to be the same as they had been at Beauxbatons: the team round at eleven o'clock in the morning and the individual rounds at four o'clock in the afternoon. Cassie's ceremony wasn't until noon so her mum had worked out how she was going to be able to do both things.

As the venue where Cassie and Brian were getting married wasn't a magical one then it wasn't connected to the floo network so Cassie was going to have to apparate between Hogwarts and the venue. She had only passed her apparation exam a couple of months ago, shortly after she had turned seventeen, but her mum had been making her practice as often as she could by gaining special permission from Professor McGonagall to be allowed to Hogsmeade each weekend to practice there. Her mum had taken her to the venue one weekend so that she could properly focus on where she needed to be apparating to which was crucial in the process and she had only had a splinching accident once in all of her practices and it was only a minor matter as part of her hair didn't make it with her; Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing soon grew that back for her.

So the plan was to apparate between the wedding venue and the school to be able to take part in both the competition and the wedding. The scariest thing about the whole plan though as far as Hannah was concerned was the fact that her mum had insisted that they keep the whole thing a secret from Cassie. She had said that Cassie had enough things to worry about and that was more stress than she should have to cope with so she wasn't to breathe a word and if asked about the competition she was to say that it was being held the following day.

Hannah was more worried about this plan than she was about the competition itself and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

It was two days before the competition and they had just finished their evening meal in the Great Hall. The Durmstrang students received a nod from Oscar Olsson, the headmaster of Durmstrang at the teachers' table and they all solemnly got up from the table and started to file out of the room.

'Now!' said Hannah as she leapt up from the table along with Maggie, Silv and Dana. She beckoned to Lawrence who was sat with his fellow Slytherin friends and he caught up with them just as they left the Great Hall.

'Excuse me!' called out Hannah as she reached the entrance hall just in time to see the students disappearing out of the main entrance and she was just about to give chase outside when they came back in, they must have heard her after all.

'Hello' said one of the students who had a big messy crop of dark hair.

'I'm Hannah Crescent' said Hannah, holding out her hand. 'I'm the team captain for the Hogwarts Duelling Team.'

'Ah!' said the student with a big smile. 'You are Hogwarts team!' He shook her hand very enthusiastically leaving it a little sore but Hannah didn't think he had done that intentionally.

'Yes, and these are the other members of the team' continued Hannah. 'This is Magaret Gibbs, Dana Dawson, Silvestris Quinn and Lawrence Lancaster.' The student shook each of their hands still smiling broadly whilst the other members of the team were murmuring to each other behind him.

'I am Sergei Kozlov' he said. 'I am team captain for Durmstrang. I am very happy meeting you. We have been wondering who the team would be, I am glad to be meeting you.'

'We've been trying to introduce ourselves since you arrived' explained Hannah, 'but you've been in quite a lot of demand since you got here!'

'Yes' said Sergei laughing, 'your students here like us I think. Maybe you go easy on us?' he asked with a wink. 'Oh I forget manners!' he said, turning to his teammates behind him. 'I have team people here too. This is Henrik Mäkelä, Lucas Lindberg, Alexei Yevtushenkov and Isak Petersson.' Hannah shook all of their hands as they were introduced and they were all smiles back at them and Hannah felt a lot less nervous about the duel already.

Oscar Olsson came out into the entrance hall then and barked something to the team in a language Hannah didn't recognise with a very stern look on his face.

Sergei hung his head and said quickly to Hannah 'I am sorry, we must leave, I am happy we meet you.'

'Likewise' said Hannah as the Durmstrang team were ushered away by Oscar Olsson and Olsson turned around and scowled at her as they disappeared outside through the main entrance.

Hannah looked around at her team who all seemed to be looking a little stunned, even Lawrence. 'Well they seemed lovely' said Hannah, 'but I don't think their headmaster likes us very much! Or he certainly doesn't want them talking to us.'

'Yeah he couldn't get them away quick enough could he' said Maggie who sounded quite sad about it.

'I think he liked you though' said Silv to Hannah with a little giggle.

'What?' asked Hannah.

'You know Sergei Kozlov, I think he liked you' she reiterated. 'I mean _liked_ liked you.'

Hannah rolled her eyes. 'Just because someone is friendly doesn't mean that they fancy you, you know Silv' but Silv just giggled again in reply.

The day before the competition, which was the day before the wedding arrived and Hannah could barely eat a thing all day. They had been training every spare second they could find for the past two weeks and their final training session would be after their evening meal tonight. They went to the Great Hall as usual for their evening meal and saw not only the Durmstrang students and Oscar Olsson but also the three judges they had seen at Beauxbatons were also sat at the teachers' table, sat either side of Professor McGonagall with Oscar Olsson sat with them as well. Suddenly it felt very real to Hannah and she couldn't quite take in the enormity of what the following day would bring. She had her bridesmaid dress all sorted out everything she needed to take to the wedding and her mind was racing with things about flowers and dresses and hexes and jinxes, all mixed up together. Cassie had wanted Hannah to stay with her the night before the wedding but their mum had told her that McGonagall wouldn't let her out of school for longer that the one day she was allowed off for the wedding to save Hannah from needing to work around that as well.

'They're here' said Maggie as Hannah sat down with them.

'Yeah' said Hannah. 'It's really happening.'

There had been a better build up to the previous round for them as they had changed their surroundings completely for the week previous and they had no distractions from the competition whilst they were at Beauxbatons but by staying at Hogwarts it seemed to have crept up very fast on Hannah and she wasn't quite able to get her head around everything that had to happen tomorrow.

Before the food appeared on the tables, Professor McGonagall rose and the room fell silent quickly, as it usually did for her.

'Good evening everyone' she said loudly. 'Firstly, I would like to officially welcome our guests from The Durmstrang Institute.' The Hogwarts students politely applauded whilst Oscar Olsson stood up and took a bow, gesturing to his students to also stand up and bow which they begrudgingly did, looking quite embarrassed about it and sitting back down as soon as possible. 'Also welcome to our judges for tomorrow's competition from the three ministries of our prestigious schools.' McGonagall lead the applause this time and it was much quieter and far less enthusiastic than the applause for the Durmstrang students and that was far from emphatic.

'As you know, we have a very special day tomorrow when we will be hosting the Final round of the First Inter-School Duelling Competition. Lessons are suspended for the day in order for all students to be able to spectate and support your school's participation in the competition.' There was a cheer from all the students in the hall except for those on the Durmstrang and Hogwarts teams who knew long beforehand that they wouldn't be participating in any lessons that day and the thought of a whole school as audience just made it more nerve-wracking.

'The group stage of the competition will begin promptly at eleven o'clock in the morning at the quidditch pitch' Professor McGonagall continued once the cheering had died down. 'I expect all spectating students to be seated promptly by ten forty-five or else they may be sent back to the castle and not permitted to watch.' There was a murmur around the room and Maggie leant over to whisper to Hannah.

'I bet loads of people turn up really early to get the best seats' Maggie said. 'I know that's what I would have done if we weren't, you know, in it.' Hannah nodded, too many things going round in her head about the competition and the wedding tomorrow to be able to reply.

'Participating students should arrive promptly at ten forty-five once all the spectators are seated' said Professor McGonagall, the murmur in the great hall stopping as soon as she spoke again. 'There will then be free time during which the participating students may wish to heal and rest and the spectating students may do as they wish.' More murmuring broke out amongst the hall and Hannah was the one to lean over to Maggie this time.

'Or go and be bridesmaid at your sister's wedding if you're me!' she said.

'The individual rounds will be taking place in the Great Hall with Hogwarts at four o'clock sharp' continued Professor McGonagall. 'Students will be permitted to spectate provided they are in the Great Hall and seated by three forty-five. Participants must arrive at three forty-five and be prepared to start fifteen minutes subsequent.'

Hannah of course already knew these timings, having discussed her plan for the day at length with Professor McGonagall but she was nervous that she would be late and would have to be disqualified and cost Hogwarts the whole competition.

'I hope you all enjoy the competition tomorrow' said Professor McGonagall. 'It is the first of its kind and shows the excellent work brought together by all of our schools and ministries in making it happen and hopefully we will have more like it in the future.'

Just as Professor McGonagall was about to sit down, the doors to the Great Hall burst open and a tall dark-skinned wizard walked in. He was bald and had a single gold hooped earring in one ear and wore beautiful purple robes. He strode across the room towards the teachers' table and Professor McGonagall hastily stood back up.

'Mr Shacklebolt!' she said in surprise when he reached the table. 'How wonderful to see you, I wasn't expecting you to be here.'

'Circumstances changed' said the man in a deep bass voice, 'so how could I miss this?' he said grinning.

Professor McGonagall gathered herself and addressed the room once more. 'I would also like to welcome Kingsley Shacklebolt, our own Minister of Magic.' There was great applause and cheers throughout the room and Hannah realised that she had seen his picture before and it must have been in the Daily Prophet.

'He is also here to enjoy the final of the Inter-School Duelling Competition tomorrow' said Professor McGonagall. 'We are very honoured to have him here so I hope you will make him feel welcome for the duration of his stay.' Professor McGonagall was smiling fondly at the Minister of Magic and it was a look Hannah didn't think she had ever seen before from their headmistress.

Kingsley Shacklebolt had been an enormously popular Minister of Magic and had held the position for about fourteen years now with no sign of his popularity waning. Everyone of Hannah's age had grown up with him being the Minister of Magic and couldn't really imagine anyone else taking over the role.

The noise in the Great Hall as they ate their meal after Professor McGonagall's address to the room was far greater than usual with the whole school a flurry of excitement and anticipation. Hannah's friends around her were talking excitedly about the following day but Hannah couldn't really focus on what they were saying; as the meal went on, her stomach got tied in more and more knots and she found she had barely managed to actually eat anything by the end of the meal.

When she returned to the Hufflepuff common room later, everyone wanted to talk to her and she wished she could talk to them but instead she went to her dormitory, sat on her bed and went through all the things she needed for the wedding, knowing that everyone around her would make sure she was set for the duel but no-one would be helping her make sure she got to her sister's wedding on time and all in order.

As she finally drifted off the sleep later that night, she found herself dreaming of duelling in her bridesmaid dress and walking up the aisle with Cassie with wedding guests firing jinxes and hexes at her.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter Nineteen**

Cassie opened her eyes, rolled over and looked at her alarm clock. It was six forty-two, almost an hour before her alarm was set for but she was wide awake already. She rolled back over and nearly rolled out of the bed completely.

Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she took in the room and remembered why the bed was so much smaller than she was expecting as she saw the room she had moved out from when she had finished school.

There were still some posters on the walls of wizarding bands and quidditch action shots and all the things she thought were so important when she was growing up that she'd forgotten about once she left school and started working. The desk in front of the window still had a charred section on the wood where a potion she had been making once had gone a little wrong and actually split her cauldron and there was a green stain on the ceiling above from one potion which had exuded vast amounts of oily green smoke.

Cassie reminisced about her time at school when things didn't seem simple at the time but looking back it was so easy and straightforward, it was just hard work.

She was expecting to feel different this morning, changed somehow. Today was the day she was going to get married, and she was even marrying a muggle. This was the biggest day of her life, but it felt very much like any other day; there was no sense of gravitas as she propped herself up to a sitting position in the bed. She tried to make things feel grander by thinking, this is the last time it's going to be quarter to seven with me as an unmarried witch. But that just didn't make her feel any different.

She grabbed her wand from the bedside table and used it to turn on the lights in the room. She blinked at the sudden brightness but her eyes quickly adjusted and she saw the glaring anomaly in her otherwise dated teenage room, her wedding dress hung up on the front of her wardrobe door.

She stared at it for a while as it hung there, beautifully golden and sparkling in the reflection of the lights in the room. She had a veil hanging with it too which her mum had used a spell to change the colour of so that it was the same golden colour of the dress. It was just as beautiful to Cassie as the first time she had laid eyes on it in the dress shop, when she hadn't even been wanting to look for something, hadn't even thought about gold as a colour and certainly wasn't expecting to find such an incredible dress and there it hung now, ready to finally be worn today.

Even looking at her dress though, today didn't feel any different to any other day; Cassie had seen her dress many times since she had picked it up from the dress shop with Martha so seeing it wasn't any different to other days.

She sat in bed for a while longer, looking at the dress and contemplating what the rest of the day had in store, knowing that this time she had now to collect her thoughts was likely to be the calm before the storm for the rest of the day and wondering what Brian was doing at the moment, until her alarm went off.

Brian rolled over, hit the alarm clock to stop its infernal racket and rolled back over again to go back to sleep. It was only when it went off for the third time that he blearily looked at the time on it and kick-started his brain to work out what it was he needed to get up for.

The cogs in his head turned and he suddenly sat bolt upright in the bed when he realised what today was. I'm getting married today he thought, it hitting him like a ton of bricks. Today he would be pledging his life to the love of his life, his magic wielding doctor healer future wife. Wife, even the sound of it was strange; he would have a wife by the end of the day, and he would be her husband.

The doorbell rang then and he realised his best man Geoff must have arrived. Geoff was the man who had been his best friend throughout school and beyond, although they didn't see much of each other since Brian started working at the hospital with his erratic shifts and then with Brian meeting Cassie and her getting priority on any time he had free. Geoff seemed to have understood that though and although they weren't as close as they once were, they seemed to be able to pick up where they had left off whenever they got together and Brian was grateful for his support whenever he needed it, although he couldn't tell him about anything to do with Cassie's revelation to him of course.

Brian opened the door, wearing only the boxer shorts he had slept in, and Geoff was stood there with a big grin on his face.

'It's the big day!' Geoff said excitedly. Brian was a little dazed still and just stood to one side to let Geoff walk into the house and closed the door behind him. 'Have you only just woken up or something mate?' asked Geoff.

'Yeah' said Brian laughing and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. 'I must have been tired, I kept hitting snooze!'

'It's your wedding day, Brian!' said Geoff. 'Chop chop! Go get yourself in the shower.'

'Coffee first' said Brian, knowing he needed to be fully alert today especially as he needed to be on his toes in case any of Cassie's side of the guests weren't on their best behaviour, magically speaking.

'Tell you what mate' said Geoff. 'Gimme a key, you go and get showered and I'll go round to Costa and grab us both a coffee.' Brian grinned at this idea, a proper coffee instead of the instant stuff they had in the house would be perfect.

'You're a star' Brian said to Geoff, handing him his house key. 'Latte with 2 please. Better have an extra shot as well actually.'

'Gotcha' said Geoff before patting Brian on the back and saying 'Go on then, shower!'

Geoff headed out the door and Brian heard his car pull away from the front of the house as he headed into the bathroom and basked under the hot, steamy water of the shower.

He was feeling refreshed and rejuvenated by the time he emerged from the shower with his towel tied around his waist just as Geoff came back into the house carrying a cardboard cup carrier with their two coffees in.

'Cheers mate' Brian said, taking the cup Geoff indicated was his and taking a big gulp from it. He felt perkier already. 'Right, let's do this' he said with a big grin.

They went upstairs to the bedroom where both of their suits were hung up ready. Brian's mum had picked them up from the local suit hire shop a few days beforehand and had fussed over him whilst he'd tried it on to make sure everything fit. It did of course, but his mum was a lot happier once she knew that for certain.

'This is what we're wearing then is it?' asked Geoff looking over the suits. 'They never told me when they measured me up but this looks alright.'

The suits were a dark grey colour, the jackets having tails which was going to be a first for Brian and probably Geoff too. The waistcoats were a deep purple and the cravat tie was golden. Brian's mum had tried to tell them that they should have top hats as well but Brian would have felt ridiculous in a top hat, he was going to feel dressed up in someone else's clothes enough as it was without having a poncy top hat on as well. But he got everything else she said he should, even something called a cummerbund that he'd never even heard of before.

Brian and Geoff managed to get their suits on and they sorted out each other's cravats as that was a lot easier than trying to do their own. Geoff's trousers were a little tighter than he was expecting though.

'Have you been pigging out on the beer and takeouts since you got measured?' Brian asked him, laughing.

'I know what it is!' said Geoff suddenly realising. 'I haven't been playing rugby the past few weeks so that I didn't risk an injury for your big day! Your mum would never have forgiven me if I'd turned up with a broken arm or a black eye.'

'You're so right' said Brian. 'Cassie would have laughed but mum wouldn't have forgiven you!'

That image in Brian's head of Geoff all wounded from rugby and his mum going mad really made him laugh and he felt all the nerves that had built up whilst they'd ceremonially got dressed just melt away.

'How long have we got?' asked Geoff, who knew his jobs for the day were to turn up on time at Brian's, get him dressed, look after the rings and make a speech. He didn't know anything else that was happening the rest of the day and he liked it that way.

Brian checked his watch. 'Only about ten minutes!' he said, he hadn't realised the time had run away with them so much already. 'I wonder what Cassie's doing at the moment' he said thoughtfully.

'Are you ready?' asked Cassie's mum as they stood together with her dad as well in their living room. They were all holding a metal bucket with one hand and looking at the clock on the wall. All of them were loaded up with other bags and boxes with their free hand each and slung over their shoulders.

'I'm ready mum' said Cassie, knowing that her mum was asking more than just if she was ready for the port key to work but she was also asking if she was ready to get married. Cassie didn't need to say that, she just knew from the way she looked at her when she said it.

'Ten' said Cassie's dad, anxiously looking at the clock. 'Five, four, three, two, one!' Cassie felt herself get pulled away by her stomach, her hand gripping the bucket like glue as they span through the air and emerged right where they planned to, behind the trees at the back of the car park of the hotel where Cassie would be getting married in just a couple of hours.

Cassie's mum and dad both landed fairly gracefully on their feet but Cassie managed to plant herself down onto her hands and knees.

'And _this_ is why I didn't get changed before we came' said Cassie as her dad helped her up. She brushed the dirt off her hands and rescued the things she'd dropped. She had only used a port key a couple of times before so she wasn't very practiced at it and she was never known for her grace in any case. They decided to use a port key to get them all their together along with all the bags and things they needed to carry and to make sure that they left on time as well and it had worked, they were all there and there in one piece with everything with them, and no risk of splinching just before the wedding too!

'Phew' said Cassie's mum. 'No-one saw us.'

'Ok' said Cassie to her parents, 'so we just come out into the car park and try and make it look like we've just unloaded everything from a car in the car park and head inside. Right?'

'Right' they replied together. Cassie had never know her mum so obedient!

They peered through the trees to make sure no-one was in the car park before emerging through the trees and walking confidently towards the hotel. That was the part of the day that Cassie was most nervous about because if anyone had seen them arrive, it would be impossible to explain three people, with luggage, appearing out of nowhere without it being magic and she didn't want to have to start modifying anyone's memory on her wedding morning.

They headed inside and Cassie checked into the honeymoon suite where her and Brian would be staying that night. Her mum came with her but her dad decided to stay downstairs and make sure everything was going to plan, but Cassie suspected it was more to make sure that Brian arrived and stuck around to marry her!

They put all the bags and boxes down in the room and Cassie jumped straight onto the big four-poster king size bed like a little kid, giggling.

'Really Cassandra love?' asked her mum dubiously.

'Oh come on mum. You've got to let me have _some_ fun' Cassie said cheekily.

They were going through everything they had brought with them to make sure it was all there and Cassie realised why she kept looking through everything because she had a nagging feeling that they were missing something.

'It's because Hannah isn't here yet' said Cassie. 'That's what I'm missing, my little sis.'

She looked at her watch, it was half past ten already, only an hour and a half until she was going to be walking down the aisle.

'Where is she?' Cassie asked her mum. 'Shouldn't she be here by now?'

Romilda looked a bit sheepish when she answered 'Professor McGonagall wouldn't let her have that much time off school I'm afraid Cassandra. She'll be here in plenty of time, just not for a little while yet.' Cassie had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't being told the whole truth as that sounded quite unreasonable for Professor McGonagall, but she decided it was probably better if she didn't know as she didn't want to be spending her wedding day worrying if other people were happy to do the worrying for her.

'When will she be there then?' Cassie asked, just wanting to get her head around what to expect.

'She'll be here in an hour' said Romilda. 'Plenty of time before the big moment.' Cassie thought her mum's smile at saying this looked a little forced and her suspicions grew.

'She will be here though won't she Mum?' she asked, the thought of having her wedding day without her little sister by her side was just unbearable.

'Of course she will' said Romilda. 'Now, looks like they've given us some muggle champagne. I've had some of this stuff before, let's get it open!'

'Mum!' said Cassie, realising she might be spending more time looking after her mum than her mum looking after her at this rate. 'That's for me and Brian when we come back here tonight, not for you to drink before the wedding has even started!'

'Oh, they'll give you another one' said Romilda as she waved her wand and the cork came out of the bottle with a loud pop.

Cassie sighed, her mum was not only ignoring her but couldn't help but use magic it seemed, what could possibly go wrong?


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter Twenty**

Hannah's stomach was a big ball of nerves when she woke up on the morning of Friday the sixth of June; a date which had been etched in her mind for so many months now. The big day when her big sister got married and she got to be her bridesmaid, a huge day in itself, but it was also the day when she was going to be captaining Hogwarts to either victory or defeat in the first Inter-School Duelling Competition.

A part of her wished she could go back in time and sit down with herself on the Hogwarts Express on the first of September and tell herself that under no circumstances should she try out for the duelling team, that she should just support her friends as they tried out for it and help them practice whenever they wanted to. Maybe she could even offer her opinions on tactics and ideas for team duelling set pieces, but just don't be on the team herself.

But there was no way of knowing then, that being on the team could have anything to do with her sister getting married. And yet here she is, sat in her bed at Hogwarts instead of being at their parents' house with Cassie, thinking about duelling spells instead of thinking about flowers and romance.

Hannah thought about how beautiful her sister was going to look in her wedding dress; Hannah hadn't seen the dress but Cassie had described it in her letters to her and she was imagining just how radiant she was going to look. Hannah then remembered how she was after the last duel, bound to a wheelchair for weeks before having to hobble around with walking aids. She had been better for a while now but the thought of turning up at Cassie's wedding in that state just didn't bear thinking about.

What if the Durmstrang students are even dirtier duellers than the Beauxbatons students had been she wondered. What if they cast even nastier spells, what if they cast something that did some permanent damage to someone? Hannah was starting to not only feel nervous now, but to also feel scared. She didn't think the horrible end she'd had to her duel in France had affected her ability to duel, but she had only been duelling her fellow team mates and Professors McGonagall and Longbottom, and she realised now that they had been known quantities, she knew for sure that they wouldn't cast anything life-threatening at her, that there was no risk or danger in practising against them, but the Durmstrang students could literally kill her if they wanted to.

She looked down at her hands and saw that they were shaking, with fear and with nerves, but she pictured Cassie in her dress again, she closed her hands into tight fists and she pushed the fear down as far as she could. They were going to win today she decided. They were going to duel faster and better than the Durmstrang boys and they were going to win.

Hannah hadn't managed to contemplate the day from her bed for long as the other girls in her dorm pulled back the curtains on her bed and jumped onto it with her at the time she'd told them all she needed to be up at. They weren't nervous at all, they were just very excited; Hannah had been expecting things to be quite mental in the common room that morning but she hadn't realised it would start from her bed! She was feeling worried and guilty, because she had been lying to Cassie for so long about the whole day. (She was firmly telling herself that she might be worried, she might feel guilty but she definitely didn't feel scared.) When she was feeling so inadequate and unprepared, the strangest feeling of the day was when she went down into the common room and they were all treating her like a hero, as though she had somehow saved them all from something terrible. Not only had they not won (or lost) yet, but she didn't feel deserving of such a treatment in any case, not with so much that could go wrong and so many lies and deceptions still to come that day.

There was no possibility of explaining any of that to her entire house though, so she let herself get swept up in the excitement and she was feeling almost happy by the time they all got to the entrance hall and she waiting the short time for her friends to arrive.

Dana arrived first and she looked utterly confident and Hannah wondered why she was team captain instead of Dana, surely Dana would be able to inspire and lead the team a lot better than she could? But it was too late for thoughts like that, she was the captain and Professor McGonagall had made it clear that she was going to remain captain, no matter how many times Lawrence claimed that he would make a much better captain.

They ate breakfast together on the Gryffindor table, except for Lawrence who was sat on the Slytherin table as he usually was. Students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were scrambling to be on the same table as well leaving those house tables looks quite sparse this morning. When the doors opened and Oscar Olsson marched his students into the hall, it was on the Ravenclaw table that he seated them, as far away from Hogwarts students as he could find.

Hannah watched them come in, none of them looking particularly happy about being marched around or seated on their own. As they went to sit down, their captain, Sergei, caught Hannah's eye and smiled quickly at her before he looked away and sat down.

A captain-to-captain moment thought Hannah, though her stomach seemed to be turning a lot more somersaults than it already was because of it.

They were bombarded with questions from everyone who felt they were close enough to shout one to them all through their breakfast but Hannah didn't mind so much, she didn't really want to eat anything anyway. By the time they were finished and they extricated themselves from the crowd, Hannah already felt exhausted.

'This is the biggest day of my life' she said to Maggie, 'and I'm exhausted just from having breakfast!'

'You'll be laughing about it tomorrow' said Maggie, giving her a big hug. 'Come on, McGonagall wants us in her office remember.'

Hannah hadn't forgotten, she had the complete schedule of the day etched into her mind from the number of times she'd run through what she was going to have to do, she doubted it was possible to forget anything.

Lawrence wasn't with them yet so Dana offered to go and drag him out of the great hall and Hannah was surprised when they came back and she really was literally dragging him out having gripped him by the arm and yanked him out of the room. He said a few choice words to Dana but it was quickly forgotten much to Hannah's relief, the last thing she needed today was to be worrying about the old Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry.

They all made their way up to the third floor and round to the stone gargoyle marking the entrance to Professor McGonagall's office.

'Tabby cats' said Dana excitedly but nothing happened.

'She told us a new password at the last training, remember?' said Silv. 'Tuxedo cats' she said confidently and the gargoyle sprang to one side this time and the wall behind where it had been parted.

They hopped onto the spiral staircase as soon as they could and rode it up to the top with only a handful of stairs to climb then. It was Lawrence who knocked on the door this time, probably trying to feel like the team captain thought Hannah. She didn't mind conceding things like that to him if it helped his esteem in the team, as long as that didn't extent to dissent in the duelling.

'Enter' came Professor McGonagall's voice from inside the office.

When they went into the large, round office which always looked so neat and tidy than Hannah felt she was out of place and might get tidied away when she was there, they saw Professor Longbottom was in there as well.

'Morning!' Professor Longbottom said excitedly as soon as they opened the door. 'It's the big day!'

In more way than one thought Hannah, but she simply replied with 'Yeah'. Not many people knew about Hannah's plan for the day, they had kept the secret to as few people as possible so that Durmstrang wouldn't hear about it and try and use it to their advantage or to sabotage them or for any reasons they hadn't thought about, so the only people who knew were Hannah, Professor McGonagall and Maggie, who was poised to cover for Hannah whenever needed.

'I suggest we spend some time reviewing tactics rather than doing any practise before the duels begins' said Professor McGonagall. 'We don't want to risk any injuries this close to the competition.'

They all agreed and they spent the next hour and a half going over their tactics and set pieces ready for the team duel.

At half past ten, half an hour before the competition started and an hour and a half until Hannah's sister would be getting married, Hannah wondered what Cassie was doing right at the moment, as they left Professor McGonagall's office and she went to collect her bridesmaid dress.

Hannah met up in the entrance hall of Hogwarts with the rest of her team after they had all been to their respective common rooms. She had a bag with her which had all her bridesmaid things in it so that she had it as close to hand as possible after the duel and she could get to Cassie's wedding as soon as possible.

Maggie noticed the bag, knowing what it would have in it, but to Hannah's relief she didn't say anything. Hannah had always thought of Maggie as a bit of a gossip really so it was reassuring to know that she could trust her friend with a secret when she asked her to keep one.

Professor Longbottom met them in the entrance hall as well, telling them that he was escorting them down to the quidditch pitch as Professor McGonagall was already down there with the judges. As they stood there, the last of the students from the castle hurried past them, shouting wishes of good luck, to hurry down to the quidditch pitch on time.

When it was five minutes before they were due to arrive, they set off too. As they walked Hannah felt the nerves rising up inside her but she steeled herself and did her best to use that energy to fire her up for the duel rather than to bring her down.

'Are you stutting?' Maggie asked her quietly as the walked along.

'I guess so' said Hannah laughing and she was just starting to really enjoy the walk when before they knew it, they were at the quidditch pitch.

'Wait here' said Professor Longbottom as he disappeared inside the arena.

As they were waiting, Oscar Olsson and his students arrived from the direction of the Great Lake where they were staying on their large ship. He said something to them in their native language and Olsson disappeared into the arena leaving the Durmstrang team behind with them.

'Hi' said Hannah to the team in general but finding Sergei, the captain, to be the one meeting her eyes.

'Hello' he said back smiling. 'Good luck' he said but one of his team mates gave him a little shove. 'Ah yes' he said, 'I guess not, but I hope you, erm…' he was trying to think of something to say which wasn't wishing for the Hogwarts team to beat them to do well against them 'I hope you have fun.' He smiled with relief, shifting from foot to foot and looking at his boots now.

'Thanks' said Hannah. 'I hope you have fun too. And I hope you don't get hurt.'

'Yes!' he said immediately back. 'I hope you don't get hurt.' He said it almost triumphantly, as though that was what he was trying to think of to say and she had jogged his memory. Hannah laughed and Maggie gave her a playful nudge in the side.

The teams didn't talk to each other again whilst they waited there but they only needed to wait for a minute or two before they heard Madam Hooch's voice amplified coming from inside.

'It's time for the teams to arrive' boomed her voice. 'So please give a warm Hogwarts welcome to the Durmstrang Institute Duelling Team!' They could hear applause coming from the stands above them and the Durmstrang team led by Sergei Kozlov, headed into the pitch area. Just before they disappeared through the canvas door, Sergei looked back at Hannah and smiled at her. Hannah's heart leapt into her mouth and that was the last thing she wanted to be feeling like right now. She had too many things to concentrate on and manage to do well today.

'And now, put your hands together for the Hogwarts Duelling Team!'

Hannah took a deep breath, and led her team out onto the pitch. The heard the applause before they entered but as soon as they were out on the pitch the sound of it was almost deafening. There were whoops and cheers and Hannah heard one group singing a song but she couldn't make out the words. She felt sorry for the Durmstrang team for not having their own school there supporting them and Hannah knew that it wasn't a very nice feeling from their trip to Beauxbatons. At least the Hogwarts students seemed to be enamoured with the Durmstrang boys so they did get a good welcome still.

They walked over to where Professor Longbottom was stood to the right, the Durmstrang team were to the left with Oscar Olsson. Professor Longbottom told them to do their stretches so they did, making sure than their bodies were feeling limber, ready for a lot of jumping around, rolling and dodging. They practiced their casting arms too to make sure those muscles were warmed up and they weren't going to pull a muscle in their wand arm when they thrust forward suddenly to cast a spell. In what seemed like no time at all, it was eleven o'clock and time for the team duel to begin.

'Gather round' said Madam Hooch, the school's flying and quidditch teacher. 'It's the coin toss for which side of the pitch you'd like to start on.' She took a galleon from her pocket and held it ready to flip. 'Heads or tails Mr Kozlov?' she asked the Durmstrang team captain.

He looked slightly confused at the question for a moment but then seemed to understand and said 'Heads.'

Madame Hooch flipped the coin, looked at it and said 'Heads it is, which side would you like?'

'Erm, this side?' answered Sergei, looking around at his team to see if they had any objections to the side they were on.

Hannah didn't think it made a difference today, the sky was quite overcast so there wouldn't be any issues of the sun in their eyes or shadows causing a problem.

Madam Hooch pointed her wand at her own throat and said 'Sonorus!' She gave a slight cough which was now an amplified cough before she spoke again. 'Take your positions please teams.'

As they walked towards their positions, Hannah asked her team 'You're all sure what you're doing, yes?'

'Yep' came back the responses from all of them, even Lawrence.

'Let's do this then!' she said, trying to fire up her team but fire herself up too, she was starting to feel like the jelly-legs jinx had already been cast on her.

They took their positions as they had planned, the same formation they used in France with Dana and Lawrence in forward positions to the left and right, Hannah in the middle set back from them and Silv and Maggie in positions behind her to the left and right, they drew their wands and they waited.

The Durmstrang team were positioned in a very similar way, with three of them in a row at the front and two of them in a second row behind them with their captain in the middle on the front row. Hannah met his eyes for a fraction of a second before looking back at Madam Hooch.

'I will blow my whistle to indicate the start of the duel' said Madam Hooch still amplified and now standing at the very edge of the quidditch pitch out of harm's way. 'I will blow the whistle a second time to indicate the end of the duel. The duel will end after either fifteen minutes or once one team has been completely disabled, whichever happens the soonest.' They all knew that one team was going to be disabled before the time ran out but it was good to know it couldn't go on forever if that didn't happen. 'Points will be awarded for duelling skill, teamwork and spell difficulty.' Hannah nodded knowing this already, what she didn't know and longed to was the duelling style of the Durmstrang team and who their strongest and weakest members were.

'Ready' said Madam Hooch, then she blew her whistle.

As planned, the four members of the Hannah's team burst outwards to the sides, spreading out as much as possible. Hannah remained in the middle but she cast a shield charm in front of her and she knew that Silv and Maggie were doing the same thing leaving her open but well shielded from any physical attack.

The Durmstrang team obviously prepared an opening manoeuvre as well as the two students either side of Sergei charged forwards and inwards to the middle whilst the other three stayed back.

Two spells came flying towards Hannah from the two students who had rushed forwards. Hannah did a diving forwards roll and managed to dodge them both by the skin of her teeth whilst she knew her own team were now trying to take advantage of them targeting her by attacking them from the sides.

Ropes flew out from Lawrences wand towards the thinnest boy on the Durmstrang team who was nearest to him and on the other side, Hannah could see a purple spell shooting from Dana's wand towards the Durmstrang student nearest to her.

Sergei and the other two Durmstrang students seemed to be ready for this though and they put a shield up in front of the ropes, with just one rope making it through before the shield went up and forming a belt for the student, and the other boy who Dana was targeting was lifted in the air letting the spell fly harmlessly beneath them.

Hannah saw an opportunity whilst they were defending the attacks from Dana and Lawrence and she was still crouched on the ground after her forwards roll had been practising non-verbal spells so she yelled 'Levicorpus!' in her head only as she aimed for the student who Lawrence had targeted and just as he looked around having had the ropes deflected, he was hoisted up in the air by his ankle.

Lawrence then targeted Sergei who was trying to counteract the Levicorpus spell whilst Dana continued targeting the same person she had before but the two students who were set back managed to deflect both the spells they cast and Sergei brought the student Hannah had hit back down to the floor with a bang. Although he remained the floor with what looked likely to be a sprained ankle, he was already taking aim with his wand from the ground.

'Bag and tag the skinny one!' Hannah yelled to her team. She saw shields go up around Dana and Lawrence and Maggie and Silv continued to do their best to block any incoming spells. Lawrence shot ropes from his wand again and so did Dana from the opposite side whilst Hannah non-verbally cast 'Petrificus Totalis!' That spell worked so much faster non-verbally as Hannah had always had trouble getting her tongue around the words as quickly as possible. The Durmstrang students realised who was being targeted and they managed to block Lawrence again, but both Hannah and Dana's spells connected, leaving the boy tied up and paralysed on the ground where he had landed.

Hannah knew they didn't have a moment to breathe and yelled 'Smoke blast, blonde!' as she had seen that the blonde boy at the back seemed to be particularly on the ball with the shields and counter-jinxes.

Lawrence, who was closest to the blonde boy, got the smokescreen spellworking, covering the boy and the area around him in smoke so that he couldn't see and his team mates couldn't see him either. Dana managed to blast a hole in the ground next to him and Hannah had managed to connect with her non-verbal 'Wingardium Leviosa' just before she lost sight of him through the smoke. She had concentrate a lot harder to control the spell once her line of sight was blocked but she could feel the student still, he was struggling against the spell. The other student who was positioned at the back had run into the smoke and seemed to be pulling at his leg. Hannah managed to drop him into the hole which was just next to the smokescreen and the student trying to help him came back into view. They were under attack themselves again now though, with Sergei and the student Dana had been targeting both targeting her and before Hannah knew what was happening, Dana was lying on the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, it looked to Hannah like she was writhing around in agony and the sound coming from her sounded like she was in terrible pain. As she disarmed the student who had come into view through the smoke before they could get their bearings and find them, his wand landing somewhere in the mass of blinding smoke, Hannah turned to see what they had done to poor Dana, and realised she was actually writhing around on the ground laughing as she was being subjected to a ticking hex.

Hannah ducked just in time as a spell flew her way from the boy Dana had been targeting as he started striding towards he and Hannah saw Sergei start heading towards Lawrence sending a spell his way.

A shield came up in front of Hannah from either Maggie or Silv and she shot a 'Stupefy' stunning spell non-verbally at the boy running towards her. He deflected it as though he knew it was coming. Hannah was quite taken aback by that, especially as that was the first time she had cast that spell this battle. 'Locomotor mortis!' Hannah cast non-verbally at the boy coming her way and it connected this time, locking his legs together and sending him tumbling to the ground but not before the spell he had cast connected with her too and Hannah found she must have been hit by the dancing feet charm as her legs were flying everywhere in a crazy dance.

As Hannah spun around she saw Silv disarming the boy Hannah had just downed and Sergei had just got the better of Lawrence, as she saw he was now lying motionless on the ground. That left Maggie and Silv still in tact against Sergei and Hannah would do what she could.

'Tumble!' yelled Hannah instructing her remaining team. Sergei deflected the trip jinx from Maggie but the jelly legs jinx from Silv connected and Hannah managed to keep her wand steady enough to cast 'Petrificus Totalis!' on him just as he tumbled to the ground.

The whistle blew and the duel was over.

Hannah was still dancing crazily around as she heard the stadium erupt into cheers and applause even louder than when they had walked onto the pitch and despite how riciculous she knew she looked, Hannah felt a huge swell of pride for her and most importantly for her team. That had been a much tougher challenge than the duel against the Beauxbatons team as the Beauxbatons students weren't really working as a team whereas the Durmstrang boys had obviously practiced a lot as a team like Hannah's team had.

Teachers filed onto the pitch and removed all the spells they were still under the effects of. As Madam Hooch walked past Hannah said to her 'I'm so sorry we made a hole in the pitch!' but Madam Hooch was too happy about the result of the duel to be worried about the damage which relieved Hannah. It was Professor Longbottom who removed the "tarantallegra" spell from Hannah and she fell down to the ground absolutely exhausted from the constant dancing.

A hand appeared in front of Hannah to help her to her feet. She took it without thinking and when she was pulled upright she found herself face-to-face and now also holding hands with Sergei Kozlov. Hannah almost fell straight back down on the ground again but instead she gripped his hand, turned it vertical and shook it formally. 'That was very well played' she said. He laughed at little at her and she broke into a big smile as well.

'You are very good captain' he said. 'You team duelled well, you deserved the win.'

'Thank you' she said, feeling her cheeks going red. 'You were really good too, I didn't think we had a chance for a while there.'

'I hoped that was case too' he said still smiling. 'But I think better team won.'

Hannah realised they were still shaking hands though the grip had loosened so it was more like they were just holding hands with movement and she quickly let go in embarrassment.

'Well done Miss Crescent' came Professor McGonagall's voice from right behind Hannah and she literally jumped in the air a little, letting out a squawk of surprise which she couldn't have been more embarrassed by.

As Professor McGonagall praised the team and Hannah's efforts, she could hear Oscar Olsson marching his students away behind her and she relaxed a little.

'Now Miss Crescent' continued Professor McGonagall, 'I believe you have somewhere to be.'

'Oh no!' yelled Hannah, 'What time is it please?'

'It's half past eleven, I believe you still have time if you hurry.'

With the duel excitement and then the post-duel excitement, Hannah had forgotten she was meant to be dashing off straight away. She bolted for where she had left her bag and ran off towards to school gates to get out of the perimeter of Hogwarts to be able to apparate to Cassie's wedding.

She reached the perimeter, feeling the change in the air as she went through the many protections surrounding the castle and she apparated, her legs jerking about again just as she began to apparate.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter Twenty-One**

Cassie stepped out of the bathroom in the hotel room to be greeted by her mum's beaming smile. The golden fabric gathered around her feet making it difficult to walk and she was quite afraid of tripping but she felt like an angel.

'Oh!' gasped Romilda and Cassie couldn't remember her mum ever being lost for words before. She was expecting some kind of rant about it not looking right and shouldn't she had taken it in here or wasn't it the wrong colour, but he mum was just staring at her with a massive smile on her face.

'Is that…?' asked Cassie peering at her mum's face. 'Are you, are you crying Mum?' Cassie was pretty sure her mum's eyes were glistening with tears, something else she had never seen from her mum.

Romilda shook her head a little to bring herself back to normal and said 'Well love, what do you expect when a mother sees their eldest in her wedding dress for the first time?', chiding Cassie for being surprised at seeing the tears, she was back to normal then. Cassie laughed at her mum who would obviously never change and she shuffled over to her and gave her a big hug, a hug that conveyed all the love they had for each other despite their various frustrations and bickerings, the bond that only a mother and daughter can have.

'Now' said Romilda once they broke apart from their hug, 'we need to do something with this dress.'

'What?' said Cassie, astounded that her mum wanted to alter her dress less than an hour before her wedding. 'What do you mean "do something with" it?'

Romilda stood back and looked appraisingly at Cassie and the dress, the overwhelming joy of seeing her in it now obviously faded and her critical eyes back on.

'Well you can't walk for starters' she said.

'It'll be fine once I've got my shoes on' said Cassie getting annoyed with her mum for what felt like the thousandth time in the wedding planning process.

'Hmmm' said her mum dubiously, looking her up and down again.

Cassie shuffled across the room, finding that sliding her feet along the carpet was the best way of avoiding tripping, round to the other side of the huge bed to where the shoebox with her shoes in it was. She sat down on the bed and slipped on the golden, strappy shoes and stood back up, the dress falling back around her feet but now that she was in heels, the dress stopped a fraction above the floor letting her toes poke out.

'See?' she said to her mum. 'Much better now with shoes on.'

'Right' said Romilda. 'Let's see you walk then.'

Cassie started to walk around the bed and found as soon as she picked her feet up at all then they got caught up in the dress still and continuing to slide her feet along the carpet was the best way to walk but that was more difficult now that she was in shoes with little heels.

'You're wobbling all over the place' said Romilda critically. 'I can put a simple levitation charm on you and you can glide along, ever such a tiny amount above the floor, the muggles won't be able to tell.'

'Mum!' said Cassie. 'I'm not floating, what if something went wrong and I ended up floating just a bit higher and _all_ the muggles would see, I can't do that Mum.'

'Right right right' said Romilda sounding annoying and staring at the dress still. 'I've got it!' she said at last.

Cassie rolled her eyes but knew this wouldn't end until she let her mum do _something_ to it. 'Go on then, what's your genius solution?'

'The problem is that it's getting under your feet as you walk, yes?' she asked.

'Yes mum, that's the problem' said Cassie, 'but it's really not a big pr-'

'So what we can do' said Romilda, cutting Cassie off, 'is I can put a little repelling charm on your feet and it'll keep the dress away from them no matter where you move them but the muggles won't be able to tell.'

Cassie thought for a moment and reluctantly said 'Actually, that's quite a good idea.' Romilda had her wand in her hand in a blink of an eye and waved it towards Cassie's feet before Cassie had a chance to stop her if she'd wanted to. She felt the dress lift slightly away from her feet and she looked down to see that the dress still looked normal from where she was looking. 'How does it look?' Cassie asked her mum as she couldn't see the mirror from where she was.

'I can't see a difference' said Romilda, frowning. 'Did it not work?'

'It worked!' said Cassie. 'I don't _want_ it to look any different!'

'Oh marvellous then' said Romilda. 'Have a walk around, see how it works.'

Cassie walked back round the bed and then round to her mum again with no problems at all, despite reversing direction even and the train which would have been a big problem just glided out of the way seamlessly. She walked over to the full length mirror which was next to the bathroom and walked around as many ways as she could think of doing in front of it; the dress moved and slid out of her way in such a way that looked completely natural and yet the material never got even close to Cassie's feet in all that movement. It was perfect.

'I love it' she said to her mum. 'You did it perfectly!'

'I can't believe you doubted me' said Romilda smiling. 'I am capable of subtle magic you know.'

'I didn't know!' said Cassie laughing. 'I've never seen you be subtle in my life!'

Romilda used her magic to put Cassie's hair up in the style they had practiced; it was a tricky spell and it took a bit of time but Romilda took her time and did it properly and the result was stunning. As she starting putting on the jewellery her mum had brought as the finishing touches, Cassie was anxious about the fact her sister wasn't there yet.

'What time is it now Mum?' she asked.

'Just after half past eleven' said Romilda. 'Are you getting nervous?'

'No' said Cassie. 'I'm getting worried. Why isn't Hannah here yet? McGonagall would have let her out by now surely?' Romilda shifted a little uncomfortably before she replied.

'I'll go and see if I can find her shall I? Maybe she's just got a bit lost?'

'Yeah, that's probably best' said Cassie who was then left alone in the room, with less than half an hour until she was walking down the aisle and feeling panicked and alone.

Hannah landed on the ground and fell straight down onto her face on the ground. She lay there for a moment as she concentrated on the different parts of her body and determined nothing was hurting any more than it should for just having fallen over. He legs had started jerking about just as she apparated and she was terrified she had splinched herself and left a leg behind at Hogwarts. She pushed herself up onto her elbows and cautiously peered at her legs. It was hard to tell under her robes but she used one hand to hold herself up and used the other to pat her legs all over. She let herself fall backward onto her back on the grass in relief as all her legs seemed to be there.

Then she remembered she didn't have much time, she now had dirt all over her and she hadn't even checked she'd arrived in the right place yet, she was just so glad she'd made it there in one piece. She swept up her bag as she leapt to her feet, noting the metal bucket lying next to it which she realised had probably been a port key from her family earlier so it looked like she was probably in the right place. She pushed through the trees to the car park and saw the building that she recognised from her practices and knew she'd done it. She had made it there, to the right place and in one piece and not even battle scarred from the duel.

Moments of the duel and the narrow misses of some of the spells flashed through her mind and she found herself dwelling on images of the Durmstrang captain. She realised then that he hadn't attacked her once in the whole fight and wondered why that was. She was at the front door of the hotel now and pushed the duel out of her mind, knowing that now she had to focus on her sister.

Just as she came in through the door, her mum was on the other side rushing through.

'Han-Han!' Cassie screeched at her.

'Mum' said Hannah happily. 'It was amazing mum, the Durmstrang team were so different to-'

'We'll have none of that!' said Romilda sharply. 'So far as everyone is concerned today, that duel happens tomorrow, put it out of you head completely.' Hannah did as she was told and stopped talking about the duel even though she was dying to break down everything that had happened and tell everyone about it.

Romilda led Hannah up to the bridal suite, waved her wand at the door and opened it. Hannah's jaw was on the floor when she saw how beautiful her sister looked.

'Cassie, you look stunning!' she said.

'You're here!' yelped Cassie rushing over to give her sister a big hug and stopping herself just before she did. 'And you're filthy! She said laughing. 'Maybe we should save the hug for when you've got changed.'

Hannah looked down and herself and saw her robes and hands were covered in dirt from her ungracious landing and also from the duel itself.

'You've got your dress right?' asked Cassie nervously.

'Right here' said Hannah, lifting up her bag.

'I'll help her into it' said Romilda, ushering Hannah into the bathroom in the hotel room. 'We've only got ten minutes!'

When Hannah emerged from the bathroom, Romilda had not only got Hannah into her dress, and removed the creases the dress had presumably picked up from being packed into a bag and done something to her hair to make it glossy and curly.

'You look gorgeous' said Cassie when she saw her sister appear in the dress she had long expected to be getting married in herself. 'I think it looks better on you that it did on me!'

'Do I get that hug now' asked Hannah, grinning.

Hannah stood on tiptoes to hug her taller sister and Cassie noticed the problem then.

'Hannah, where's your shoes?'

'Ah, yes' said Hannah, her smile dropping. 'I kind of, forgot them.'

'You what?' asked Cassie.

'I forgot them, I'm really really sorry!'

'You only needed to bring your thing Han' said Cassie. 'Are you that disorganised these days?'

'I thought I had them in the bag, I just forgot to check' said Hannah pleadingly.

'Well, it's done now' said Cassie. 'I guess you'll have to go barefoot, it's not a disaster.'

'Or' interjected Romilda. 'I can transfigure some from these slippers?'

Cassie could tell from the way she had said it, that although her mum was technically asking, she had already decided that she was going to go ahead and do it, and with only a couple of minutes until she was meant to be walking down the aisle, she didn't have time to argue.

'Go on then' she said. 'Just do it quickly.'

Romilda transfigured the slippers into a pair of purple satin shoes which were even nicer than the ones Hannah was meant to be wearing. Hannah felt completely transformed as they grabbed the bouquets for each of them that the florist had brought up whilst Romilda had been tracking down Hannah and they headed downstairs to find Cassie's dad.

They were assembled in front of the door, the hotel events manager called Lindsay was with them telling them what to do, which was lucky since Cassie didn't really know how things were done at wizard weddings, let along muggle ones. Lindsay insisted on Romilda going into the ceremony room and taking her seat which Cassie was relieved about as her constant fussing was stressing her by that point. The photographers had both said they were ready for her to go and so everyone was in place.

The string quartet in the corner of the room which had been playing classical music Brian didn't recognise the whole time he had been waiting there, suddenly struck up into the tune he had been waiting for. 'Here comes the bride' he said softly to himself in time with the music. The doors at the back of the room opened and Hannah walked into the room, wearing the lovely purple dress Cassie had been planning on wearing herself. She looked so much more grown-up than she had looked when Brian met her at Christmas and it was good to see her fully recovered from injury that had left her wheelchair bound for a while. As Hannah turned the corner and started down the aisle, Cassie and her dad walked into the room, arms linked.

It felt like all the lights on the rest of the whole had been turned off and there was only Cassie she looked so radiant. The golden dress she was wearing seemed like it was her own sun and the rest of the world was now revolving around her. She turned the corner as well and he couldn't see her for Hannah now as she walked along in front of the pair of them. Brian had felt nervous right until the point that he saw Cassie as he realised all his nerves had left him and he was just so happy to even be in the same room as her.

As Hannah neared the front of the aisle and everyone was getting their photos of Cassie, Hannah suddenly did the strangest thing. Her legs shot out in random directions and she danced like a lunatic on the spot for about five seconds. Everyone turned to look at her and there were shocked expressions on everyone's faces, including Brian's. What on earth was she doing? Was this some kind of wizard tradition or a practical joke or something.

He saw Hannah's face go almost instantly beetroot red and she hurried to her position at the side. Brian frowned at her but turned his attention back to Cassie who looked confused as well but then made eye contact with Brian and beamed at him and Cassie could be juggling fire now and he wouldn't care, his Cassie was there and she was perfect.

The muggle registrar and the wizarding official both stood in front of Cassie and Brian. Romilda had cast some memory modification on the muggle registrar to make him believe that the wizarding official was from another country and was needed to make the wedding official wherever that was. Cassie hadn't asked for the details, she was just grateful for her mum taking the initiative and sorting it out.

Cassie glanced over to the side where her sister was to give her a questioning look as to what on earth that crazy dance she did was all about but she just shrugged back and her and Cassie decided that was better left till later.

'Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Saddleworth on this very special day for Cassandra and Brian' began the muggle registrar. Cassie looked over at Brian whilst he continued talking, Brian looked back and they just giggled a little at each other, both so relieved to finally be here and actually getting married after all the stress and drama they had had since Brian had first proposed.

The wizarding official and the muggle registrar took it in turns to address Brian and Cassie and the guests; the wizarding official was fully aware of the muggles that were present and he kept his words strictly muggle safe.

The part everyone at every wedding was always nervous about arrived as the muggle registrar asked if anyone knew of any reason why they couldn't legally marry. The tension in the air was palpable as everyone held there breaths. And then Hannah, stood to the side of them mirroring where Geoff was stood as best man for Brian, suddenly burst into the same crazy dance she had done at the front of the aisle.

'What are you doing?' asked Cassie through clenched teeth to her sister, trying to keep a smile on her face.

'I'm sorry!' Hannah said desperately as the dancing ended as soon as it had begun after about five seconds.

'Well' said the muggle registrar, 'I guess I'll just take that as a celebratory dance then!' The guests all laughed and Cassie resumed her smile when she looked at Brian again.

'I declare you bonded for life' said the wizarding official as the ceremony finally concluded and as Cassie and Brian kissed, the guests applauded and some even cheered. No matter what else went wrong now, thought Cassie, we're married and no-one can take that away from us.

After they had signed the muggle register, Cassie and Brian were led off by Lindsay, the hotel events manager, to a small private room to have a few minutes with each other before they rejoined their guests.

They were taken into a small conference room where there were two champagne glasses on a tray covered in rose petals on the table for them and a card from the staff of the hotel saying congratulations and wishing them a happy marriage.

They had barely had a chance to sit down when the door opened and the wizarding official came in.

'One more item to attend to I'm afraid' he said. 'One we couldn't do in front of all the muggles of course.'

'Oh right' said Cassie. 'I'm sorry, I hadn't realised.'

'Oh it's quite alright' said the wizard. 'You just stand together here' he said, indicating the spot in front of where he was stood.

Brian took Cassie's hand and led her over to where they had been directed.

'Now, if you could just hold hands here please' said the wizard. They held hands facing each other, smiling at each other and the wizard waved his wand and said again 'I declare you bonded for life.' This time golden sparks appeared around them, encircling them and they both felt a wave of energy go through their bodies as the sparks passed down around them. Brian had never had a feeling like that before and really quite liked it. 'I shall leave you alone now' said the wizard, 'and congratulations!'

He left and Cassie and Brian were finally alone.

'No-one could see that, right?' asked Brian nervously, looking around the room. There was no window in the little conference room so they relaxed and held each other for a couple of minutes.

'What was that about with your sister?' asked Brian once they had sat back down to drink their champagne, was something wrong with her.

'I really haven't got a clue' said Cassie. 'I'll be asking her about it later, it's not like her to be attention seeking or something though, I am a little worried about her.'

'You don't think someone put a hex on her or something do you?' asked Brian, not really feeling sure of the right magic terminology but Cassie didn't correct him so he thought he probably got it right.

'I can't see why' said Cassie. 'And a hex like that would have lasted longer. It looked a lot like the dancing feet spell tarantallegra but just in little bursts isn't like anything I've seen from it before.'

'And why would anyone do that to her anyway?' asked Brian. 'If someone really did want to ruin the day like that then surely they'd do it to you rather than to Hannah anyway.'

'Well, it didn't ruin anything and we're married now' said Cassie. 'My husband' she said to Brian grinning.

'My wife' he said and they chinked their glasses together and finished off their champagne.

'What happened?' asked Romilda as she grabbed Hannah by the arm and dragged her to one side once they had picked up their drinks at the drinks reception.

'I don't know' said Hannah, pulling her arm free of her mum's grip and straightening herself up, hoping it didn't look like they were causing a scene, she was embarrassed enough as it was.

'You must know' said Romilda. 'Did someone there curse you or something?'

'I think it was from the duel' said Hannah who could think of no other explanation. 'I was hit by a dancing feet spell at the end of the duel, but Professor Longbottom lifted the jinx, I was ok, or I thought I was, until I apparated.'

'What happened when you apparated?' Romilda demanded.

'I thought I was going to splinch myself' said Hannah dramatically. 'Just as I was starting to apparate, my legs started doing that crazy dance thing. I was sure when I landed here that I was going to be missing a leg or a foot or something!'

Romilda sighed. 'Yes, with the bursts you had at the ceremony too, it sounds like this Professor Longbottom didn't do a very good job removing the jinx.'

'I was in a hurry' said Hannah. 'It was probably my fault not concentrating or something.'

'Don't make excuses for him Hannah' said Romilda sternly. 'Now hold still she said as she took her wand out of her pocket.

'Mum!' said Hannah. 'You can't do magic in front of all these muggles!'

Romilda looked around and said 'No, I suppose you're right. I'll have to sort you out a little later.'

Brian and Cassie came into the room where the drinks reception was being held then, which had patio doors leading to the garden outside which were wide open and most of the guests were now out there.

'Congratulations!' said Romilda, hugging Cassie. Brian's parents rushed over to see them as well, exchanging hugs and general excitement.

'What happened to your legs in there?' asked Martha to Hannah once they had finished all the congratulations.

'I'm not sure' said Hannah as evasively as she could and to her relief the muggle photographer came over then.

'Time to get the photos done' he said ushering them outside.

The photographs went smoothly with the muggle photographer and Cassie's uncle Cuthbert who was doing the wizarding photographs for them managed to work together to do all the photographs they wanted to do and Hannah kept anxiously checking the time.

She needed to be in the Great Hall, in her robes by three forty-five at the latest and it was already quarter past two.

Finally Brian and Cassie were called to start the receiving line into the big room they would be eating the meal in. The meal started at two thirty so Hannah had allowed herself an hour to eat, which seemed plenty when they ate in about twenty minutes at school, and then she needed to grab her things and apparate back to school.

By the time everyone was seated in the room, Hannah having been put on one of the family tables with cousins about her age, it was already two forty five and Hannah was starting to realise her plan wasn't going go as smoothly as she had thought. By the time the melon balls starter had arrived at all the tables it was after three o'clock and Hannah knew she was going to have a problem. When the waiting staff were clearing the plates from the starter at twenty-five past three, Hannah went over to her Mum sat at the top table next to Cassie and Brian and asked to speak with her privately so that Cassie wouldn't overhear. They headed out of the room with a frown from Cassie who was obviously wondering what was happening with them and ducked into the little room where Cassie and Brian had gone after the ceremony.

'I need to go Mum!' said Cassie desperately when they were inside.

'Oh my goodness, is it that time already?' asked Romilda who had obviously been swept away with the events of the day and had forgotten about the drama that her younger daughter was enduring.

'Can you tell Cassie something?' Hannah pleaded. 'Anything.'

'I'll tell her you've had to go and lie down because you're not feeling well' said Romilda, who Hannah thought was far to calm about and found it far too easy to lie.

'Ok' said Hannah, dashing out of the door to get up to Cassie's room where her bag was stashed.

She got up to the room in under a minute, checked around her to see if anyone was there, got her wand out and whispered 'Alohomora.' The door unlocked and she went inside and found her bag. The pulled her robes out from it as fast as she could, got her bridesmaid dress off and got into her robes faster than she thought she could then she apparated from right where she was in the room.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter Twenty-Two**

Hannah appeared right where she has disapparated from just a few hours earlier and without missing a beat she started running for the school gates. She checked the time and it was almost twenty to four. Hannah hoped that Maggie was covering for her until she could get there otherwise they might think she wasn't coming at all and choose someone else to replace her.

She burst through the main doors of Hogwarts into the entrance hall and almost collapsed completely on the floor. All of the Hogwarts team and the Durmstrang team were all waiting in the entrance hall and saw her ridiculous arrival and Hannah felt herself turning red as she saw all of the Durmstrang team watching her looking very surprised.

'Sorry I'm late!' said Hannah through pants of breath. She bent over leaning her hands on her thighs and breathed deeply trying to regain her normal breathing.

'Are you alright?' asked Silv concerned. 'Maggie said you'd had to go to the hospital wing'

'Yeah, and we weren't allowed to visit' said Maggie quickly.

'Right' said Cassie, still out of breath.

'But I didn't think you got hit by anything bad' said Dana so I don't understand why.

'Precaution' said Hannah still panting.

Suddenly Hannah heard a familiar voice above her say 'Hello' in a Russian accent. Hannah suddenly stood bolt upright and see that it was Sergei, tried to control her breathing so that she wasn't panting at him.

'Hi' she replied, feeling herself blushing again.

'I overhear that you were hurt' he said solemnly. 'This was not intended, I am very sorry from me and my team.'

'No no' said Hannah. 'Really, I was fine, not a problem' Sergei looked a little confused by this.

'I wondered why I not see you after the duel' he said. 'I saw you run away but you must have gone to hospital wing.'

'Yeah' said Hannah. 'I thought it was an emergency so I ran but I was ok.' She hated lying and this was just making things worse and worse.

They all turned and looked at the closed door leading to the Great Hall then, as they heard Madam Hooch's voice clearly amplified from inside.

'Please welcome the Durmstrang Institute Duelling Team!' she said. Applause, and even a couple of cheers from what Hannah could hear, came from inside the room and Sergei nodded politely to Hannah before opening the door and leading his team inside, his smile back on his face Hannah could see before the door swung closed again.

'Alright then, let's get ready' said Hannah to the team.

'Anything you want to share with the group?' said Dana teasingly as they gathered by the door.

'What?' said Hannah, thrown by the question, did she know something about where she had been?

'You and Sergei?' Dana replied, nudging her a little.

'Just team captain chat' said Hannah, brushing it off but feeling her stomach turn a little.

'And now please welcome the Hogwarts Duelling Team' said Madam Hooch's voice from inside. The noise coming through the door was far greater than it had been for the Durmstrang team and Hannah opened the door and led her team inside.

The four long house tables and benches were on one side of the room, arranged by magic to create bleachers, and it seemed that the entire school was sat on them. Professor Longbottom was stood over to one side to Hannah led the team over to him to wait there.

'This will be the final stage of the First Inter-School Duelling Competition' said Madam Hooch. 'The results from this and the team duelling this morning will form the final results and determine which of the three school which have participated will be awarded the Duelling Cup.' The cup was stood on a table to one side of Madam Hooch and it showed a wand with a spell shooting out from it.

'This is the individual round and the pairings of students will be determined randomly' said Madam Hooch. She took out her wand and waved it making a large glass ball like the one they had seen at Beauxbatons appear on the table in front of her. She lifted up her hand containing pieces of parchment and said 'These parchment slips contain the names of each of the participating team members and they will be used to determine the pairings.' She dropped them into the ball and they started to spin around inside it like they had at Beauxbatons.

'The first pairing will be' said Madam Hooch, waving her wand over the ball so that two pieces of parchment shot into the air and floated into her hand. 'Dana Dawson and Henrik Mäkelä.' The crowd applauded with a particularly loud cheer from the Gryffindors.

The second pairing will be' she waved her wand again and another two pieces of parchment shot into the air. 'Silvestris Quinn and Alexei Yevtushenkov.' This time the biggest cheer came from the Ravenclaws though Hannah noted that the Hufflepuffs seemed to be in good voice as well.

'Lawrence Lancaster and Isak Petersson' came the next announcement and the Slytherins went crazy with their cheering. Hannah looked over at the Durmstrang team, noting full well who there was left to be selected from, just Sergei and Lucas and she had a sinking feeling that history was going to repeat itself.

'Margaret Gibbs and Lucas Lindberg' said Madam Hooch, sending the Ravenclaws into cheers even louder than last time as they tried to outcheer the Slytherins and Hannah's heart sank.

'Hannah Crescent and Sergei Kozlov' came the last announcement as the Hufflepuffs finally had their turn to cheer their hearts out for their house's team member. Hannah looked over at Sergei and they both shrugged their shoulders at each other, captain against captain it was then, just like it had been at Beauxbatons but Hannah was at least sure that this time she wouldn't end up almost dead.

'Please take your positions in the pre-marked area in the order in which your names were called' said Madam Hooch, indicating the area behind her where there were rectangles marked out on the floor for them to stand in. They all walked over to their positions so that Hannah and Sergei were then facing each other with their wands out ready and Hannah felt herself blushing and feeling self-conscious. She remembered then how hard she had found it when they were training when she was duelling against her best friends but they had done so much training for so long now that she had got quite used to firing off duelling spells at her friends and she did her best to bring those feelings up inside her and try and pretend that it was brave Dana who was opposite her instead of those bewitching eyes and that beautiful smile. It looked like he was struggling the same as Dana when she looked at him properly and he was frowning and talking to himself then looking at her and smiling.

'Points will be awarded based on duelling skill and spell difficulty' said Madam Hooch now that they were all in position. 'The duels will start on my whistle and will continue until one person in each duel is disabled or until the duel has lasted for five minutes. I will blow my whistle for the second time once this is the case and all spells must cease at that point.' All of the students were familiar with this as they had all competed in same rounds against Beauxbatons; Hannah hoped that she would be conscious when this one ended and even more so hoped that she wouldn't be fighting for her life, but she felt strangely safe duelling Sergei.

'Take your positions' said Madam Hooch and they all adopting the position they wanted to start in. Hannah had her wand arm extended and her other arm behind her to create balance. Sergei's position looked very similar to hers as he stood opposite her almost mirroring her.

Then the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle echoed around the Great Hall.

'Protego!' said Hannah aloud, putting up a physical defensive shield in front of her as she ducked down low to try to avoid any spell heading her way and she saw that Sergei has started defensively as well. She didn't know what defenses he had put up so she went for something she knew he couldn't defend and pointed her wand at the floor around his feet and thought 'Glisseo!' and the floor turned smooth and slippery like ice. Sergei managed to keep his balance though and sent a spell back at her which wasn't physical so it went straight through Hannah's shield and her feet were glued to the floor. Ok she thought, can't do much dodging now so I'd better attack before I'm attacked. 'Flipendo!' she thought and followed it up immediately with the same spell again. The first burst into sparks on Sergei's shield as she had expected but the second one connected and he had no chance to keep his balance then as he was flipped backwards onto the slippery surface of the floor. Hannah cringed as she heard him hit the floor with a bump and hoped he wasn't going to be bruised.

From the floor he then aimed a spell at Hannah. She tried to dodge it but with her feet stuck to the floor she couldn't get out of the way and she found herself being unbearably tickled. She giggled girlishly for a couple of seconds but pushed the laugh down and knew it was time for her to go ahead with the plan she had come up with in the weeks before the competition.

'Expelliarmus!' she thought through the tickling as she aimed at Sergei's wand as he lay on the ground. As it flew out of his hands she kept her aim on it and thought 'Geminio!' There were then two identical wands flying through the air and Hannah kept aiming at one of them and cast 'Geminio!' again so that then there were three different wands, all flying through the air and with no way of knowing which was the genuine wand. He scrabbled after them, slipping on the icy floor and Hannah said aloud this time, 'Petrificus Totalis' and he froze where he was and didn't move again.

She started to rush towards him, still giggling a little as she was still being tickled, though she wasn't sure why she was rushing to him; to help him or maybe just to say sorry, she wouldn't ever know as she slipped on the floor herself as she got closer to him, forgetting about what she had done to it and landed unceremoniously on her bum with a loud bang.

The whistle then blew as Hannah felt the throbbing pain go through her, but she couldn't stop laughing. Maybe it was the relief of the end of the duel, maybe it was ridiculousness of her fall or maybe it was because she was still being tickled, most likely it was all of these things but she laughed and laughed until one of the teachers lifted the ticking hex from her and fixed the floor.

Sergei had been sorted out too and he walked over to her and held out his hand to shake hers. She took it and he held it so gently that Hannah felt like he was going to kiss her or something.

'Very good duel' he said instead though. 'You won very well.'

'Thanks' said Hannah, blushing again. 'You were great too.' Hannah looked away from him quickly and assessed the state the rest of her team were in, realising that she probably should have made that her priority instead of running over to the opposition's team captain.

Dana was tied up in ropes and currently being untied from them by a teacher, the boy Lawrence was duelling was standing up having been treated by a teacher so Hannah hoped Lawrence had come out on top in that duel, Silv and her duelling partner were shaking hands so she couldn't tell how that duel had gone and when Hannah finally spotted Maggie she saw that she was crying. Hannah ran over to her as fast as she could and grabbed her in a big hug.

'What's wrong?' Hannah asked, 'Are you alright?' She pulled back from the hug and looked at Maggie properly, she was wide-eyed and looked terrified.

'It was the shield' she said shaking. 'The shield, I hit the shield.'

'Ok' said Hannah looking round the area she had been duelling in for a clue as to what happened when she hit the shield. 'Then what happened?'

'I hit the shield and I saw things' Maggie said. 'I saw things, horrible things. Horrible things.'

'Oh god' said Hannah who had heard about some shields which could trigger a nasty counter-attack when you hit them with a spell, this one seemed to have had a psychological counter-attack and was very effective by the looks of the state of Maggie still now.

'Professor McGonagall!' Hannah called out and the headmistress came running over.

'Yes Miss Crescent?' she asked.

'Maggie needs help' said Hannah. 'The Durmstrang boy had a shield which counter-attacked her with something which put images in her head. She's really suffering!'

'Right' said Professor McGonagall in a business-like tone and she took Maggie by the hand and led her straight out of the room.

Hannah was really worried for her friend but she knew she was in the best hands she could be in now, she didn't know a witch or wizard as powerful as Professor McGonagall and she had healed Hannah herself so well after the last duelling they'd had at Beauxbatons.

'Thank you everyone' came Madam Hooch's amplified voice. 'The judges will now deliberate their scores and once we have them we will be able to announce the final scores for the day and consequently which school has won the First Inter-School Duelling Competition.' There was a cheer from the students in the hall as the judges left the room to write their scores. Hannah just hoped that Maggie would be back in time to hear the result, whichever way it went she wanted them all to be together.

It was about twenty minutes later when Maggie and Professor McGonagall came back into the Great Hall. Maggie came straight over to Hannah and she was grinning now.

'Did we win?' she asked excitedly.

'We don't know yet' said Hannah. 'Are you ok?' She looked hard at her friend.

'Yeah, I'm fine' she said still grinning. 'Professor McGonagall modified my memory, I can't remember what happened for half of my duel but she told me why she took the memory out and I'm happy with that!'

'Ok' said Hannah, glad she wouldn't have to lie to her best friend. 'I hope the judges come back soon, I really need to get back to the wedding!'

'Oh yeah!' said Maggie, 'you know I'd forgotten about that with everything that was happening!'

'I hadn't' said Hannah, though she looked over at the Durmstrang team where they were standing and wished she would be sticking around for the celebrations or commiserations as either way, there was going to be a big party that night.

'Here they come!' said Dana hurrying over to them, pointing at the judges coming back into the room.

The five of them gathered together in a huddle and Maggie gripped Hannah's hand as they nervously waited for the results. The judges handed a piece of parchment to Madam Hooch and the whole room fell silent in anticipation.

'I have the results of the Hogwarts versus Durmstrang round of the competition and consequently the overall winner of the First Inter-School Duelling Competition' said Madam Hooch.

'The previous round results have been Hogwarts seventy-one, Beauxbatons fifty-seven and Durmstrang seventy-three, Beauxbatons seventy-nine meaning it is possible for any of the three schools to win the competition based on today's results as the scores will be totalled for an overall score. The final Beauxbatons score is one hundred and thirty-six.'

They all already knew this and Hannah wished they would just tell them who had won already!

'Without further ago' continued Madam Hooch, as though she had read Hannah's mind, 'these are the results from today's competition.'

'For the team duelling the results are, Durmstrang thirty-nine out of fifty points, Hogwarts forty out of fifty points.'

The room exploded into cheers, they had beaten the Durmstrang team by just one point in the team duel and Hannah couldn't believe how close it had been.

'This means that before the individual results, Durmstrang have a total of one hundred and twelve points and Hogwarts has a total of one hundred and eleven points.

Everything now hung on the individual rounds results with just one point between the two schools and the whole room was so quiet that Hannah could even hear Maggie's breathing next to her.

'The individual results are as follows' said Madam Hooch. 'for the first duel, Dana Dawson seven points, Henrik Mäkelä eight points' There was a quiet ripple of applause, that put Durmstrang two points ahead of Hogwarts.

'The second duel result is' continued Madam Hooch, Silvestris Quinn seven points, Alexei Yevtushenkov six points.' The Hogwarts students were cheering and applauding this result but they were still one point behind Durmstrang.

'The third result is Lawrence Lancaster eight points, Isak Petersson seven points.' The crowd in the Great Hall went wild again and Lawrence was holding up in hands in victory. This brought their scores exactly level.

'The forth result is Margaret Gibbs six points, Lucas Lindberg seven points, bringing the running totals to one hundred and thirty-nine points for Hogwarts and one hundred and forty points for Durmstrang meaning the winning school is one of the schools present here.'

Hannah saw Maggie's shoulders fall, she was so disappointed with herself for losing her duel and Hannah put her arm around her shoulders and whispered 'You did great' to her. They were one point behind and there was only the result of Hannah and Sergei's duel left. She was terrified now, everything came down to the final result of her duel and she had no idea if she had done enough to score better than he did, if her spells were good enough to even get points. Maybe they should her duelling ideas were childish or simple, she could be the one that loses it for the whole of Hogwarts.

'And finally, Hannah Crescent nine points, Sergei Kozlov seven points.'

The whole of Hogwarts went absolutely wild! Hannah had never heard a noise like it, it was almost deafening. She looked round at her teammates and was dumbfounded to see that Dana and Lawrence had their arms around each other and were kissing like there was no tomorrow.

Hannah looked at Maggie who had seen it too and they burst out laughing, there was no way they ever expected that. Silv noticed then and she said 'What?' so loudly that Dana and Lawrence broke apart and looked at them.

'Didn't you realise?' asked Dana. 'I thought we'd been really obvious!'

'No' said Hannah laughing. 'We didn't have a clue!' They kissed again and Hannah just said 'As long as you're happy, we're happy!' and they yanked the couple apart to have a team hug.

Hannah looked over at the Durmstrang team, feeling bad for them as they had been so very close to winning and Hannah wondered if Sergei had held back against her and cost his own school the victory.

'Shouldn't you be somewhere?' Maggie asked in Hannah's ear and Hannah snapped to attention.

'Of course!' she said. 'I need to get back!'

Hannah pushed through the crowds who were spilling down from the bleachers to try and get to the team and she made her way to Professor McGonagall.

'Professor McGonagall' she called when she was close enough.

'Congratulations Miss Crescent, an excellent victory for Hogwarts!' replied Professor McGonagall.

'Thank you Professor' Hannah replied. 'But I really need to leave!'

'Of course' said Professor McGonagall. 'I will explain to people why you had to leave, there is no need for secrecy any longer.'

'Thank you Professor' said Hannah and she pushed her way through the crowd and finally out of the door into the entrance hall. There were quite a few students who had spilled out of the Great Hall into the entrance hall but they didn't stop her as she ran out of the huge door to Hogwarts and raced back across the grounds.

She left the gates which marked the boundary of Hogwarts and ran on a little further until she felt the barrier of magical protection surrounding the castle pass through her. She stopped, recovered her breath a little, and apparated, but just as she did, a hand grabbed her arm.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter Twenty-Three**

Hannah felt the hand on her arm pulling as her as she apparated, adding weight and throwing her off-balance. She desperately hoped she wouldn't splinch herself or whoever it was hanging onto her as they were crushed by the air around them as they travelled. Hannah had been wanting to apparate straight into her sister's room, where she had disapparated from to get to Hogwarts, but in the split second from her arm being grabbed she changed the destination to the first one she had used last time she apparated to her sister's wedding venue, behind the trees surrounding the car park in case she needed to escape whoever it was.

They landed together on the soft ground and tumbled over. Hannah quickly checked herself all over and was relieved to find she hadn't splinched, then she looked at who her travelling companion had been and was surprised to see Sergei turn to look at her.

'Hannah!' he said, getting to his feet to come over to her. 'Are you alright?'

'Sergei?' she said, he was the last person she had expected. 'What are you doing here? I mean, why did you grab me? Sergei, I could have splinched you!'

'I didn't know' he said, 'I didn't know you were apparating, I never would have, I'm sorry.'

'I'm sorry' she said. 'But why were you there? I thought you were in the Great Hall with your team?'

'I wanted to see you' he said. 'I wanted to say congratulations, but you ran out of the room before I could. I thought maybe something was wrong, why else would you run away when you had just won, when you are captain of team that just won. So I run after you, I try to help you, but you ran fast, I couldn't catch up. Then you stop, so I go to, to shake hand, to hug maybe, and this happen.'

Hannah hadn't dreamt that anyone was capable of keeping track of someone else in all the chaos in the Great Hall when she had slipped away, she thought she'd managed to get away without anyone realising but it seemed Sergei had been keen to watch her and this embarrassed her which she couldn't explain why.

'I..' she said, but she couldn't find any words, she didn't know what to say. 'This is my sister's wedding' she said, thinking he probably would appreciate an explanation even though he hadn't even asked for one. 'I'm a bridesmaid but she doesn't know I've been at Hogwarts for the competition, I told her it's tomorrow so she wouldn't worry.'

'Your sister's wedding?' he was so surprised. 'You have been bridesmaid at wedding as well as the duelling today? You are remarkable Hannah' he said and before Hannah really knew what was happening, his arms were around her and his lips were on hers.

Hannah had never had a boyfriend, she'd never had a kiss before, and the whole world seemed to disappear around her and there was only her and Sergei and nothing else.

They broke apart and looked at each other, both grinning hugely.

'Right' said Hannah, not really sure what to say.

'Was that ok?' asked Sergei. 'Should I not have?'

'Yes' said Hannah, 'I mean no, yes it was ok, yes you should have.'

He kissed her again but a shorter kiss this time before he said 'Should you not be at the wedding?'

'The wedding!' said Hannah, she had completely forgotten about the wedding. She grabbed his hand and pulled him after her as she ran through the trees out into the car park and ran for the entrance of the hotel.

Once they were inside they rushed up to Cassie's room and Hannah opened the door with her wand, and let them both inside. She left Sergei waiting whilst she got changed back into her bridesmaid dress in the bathroom and when she came out in the beautiful purple dress, he just said 'Beautiful!' before he kissed her again.

At that moment, the door to the room opened and Cassie came in.

'Are you in here Han-Han? Are you feeling any better?' she said softly as she slowly and quietly opened the door. Hannah and Sergei broke apart just as Cassie opened the door wide enough to see them and she was stunned by what she saw.

'Hannah?!' she asked incredulously.

'Cassie' said Hannah, 'It's not how it looks'

'You left my wedding meal to go and snog a boy in my room?' asked Cassie, seeming to disbelieve it even as she said the words.

'No!' said Hannah. 'It's not like that at all.'

'That's what it looks like Han' Cassie said putting her hands on her hips now.

'No' said Sergei. 'She tell truth, really. Hannah, tell her what happened, please. Your honour is in tact, truly, she must know this.'

'Go on then' said Cassie, raising an eyebrow and waiting for an explanation.

Hannah told her everything, about the competition being on the same day, about her and their mum's plan of hiding it from her, about apparating between the two places and even why her legs had been going crazy in the ceremony earlier in the day. And she told her how Sergei had come to accidentally be there with her and then she was too embarrassed to say how they had then had their first kiss but Cassie was kind enough not to ask.

Cassie was happy to be introduced to Sergei and they kind of fumbled around what to call him and Hannah's heart did a little skip when she questioningly asked her if boyfriend was ok. So the three of them went back down to the wedding reception where they were waiting for Cassie to come back so that they could cut the cake.

Cassie hadn't wanted Hannah to miss the cake cutting as it was a muggle tradition that Hannah had read about in one of the muggle wedding magazines that Martha had bought for Cassie and she thought it was very sweet so Cassie wanted to make sure she was there for it.

When they got down into the reception room again, everyone was waiting for them and Hannah thought she saw one of her uncles tucking away his wand into his pocket. She eyed him suspiciously but she knew they wouldn't do anything that the muggles would see, they might have had a few drinks but they knew better than that.

She got some funny looks as she came back to the wedding not only looking like she had never been ill, which of course she hadn't been, but also now holding hands with a boy dressed in Durmstrang robes! But no-one said anything, they were too anxiously waiting for the cake cutting.

Cassie went over to join Brian by the cake.

'Who's that?' he whispered to her, nodding towards Sergei.

'Hannah's boyfriend' whispered back Cassie. 'Everything's alright, don't worry about it'

'Ok' said Brian to the guests gathered round. 'It's time to cut the cake!' There was a cheer from Cassie's family which confused Brian a little but he was just glad they were enjoying it.

They took hold of the cake knife together, one hand each on it and pushed the knife slowly down into the cake.

As they reached the bottom of the cake, the most unexpected thing happened, and a host of golden and purple butterflies erupted from inside the cake, fluttering out and filling the room.

Cassie and Brian looked at each other stunned for a moment, but then they basked in the glorious magicalness of it all, knowing they'd explain it away as pre-planned to the muggles there and loving their special magical moment.

~~~~ fin ~~~~


End file.
